NEW RULE: Trump supporters who are OK with accepting Russia’s help to win an American election don’t get to call themselves “patriots” and Democrats “un-American.”
51
The opposite of socialism is DONALD J. TRUMP, an anti-socialist. The opposite of greatness is the DNC. The opposite of endless errorism is Peace on Earth. The opposite of evil is God's love. Truthy will not set us free.
1
The Republican Party is a party of Fascists. William F Buckley Sr called himself a fascist and Jr was a supporter of Franco until Spain's monarchy was restored. Fascist is almost the correct word for the Republican Party except its collection of Whigs and Tories includes so many anarchists that the center of the Republican party is the insanity zone where Autocracy and Chaos meet.
If my remembrance of history is correct the raison d'etre of the Federalist Society was rather than eliminate the aristocracy they chose to replace it with a new aristocracy. The reason America is the world's oldest democracy is because it was the first experiment with Democracy and Rousseau's Social Contract was in its first iteration and Jefferson Democracy made America the first Socialist nation.
19
Paul: You and Dave Brooks need to talk. He doesn't agree. But he's wrong... as usual.
14
It's pretty "Rich" hearing the Party of Red Republicans call Democrats "Socialists". Why are the Republicans so friendly with Communist Russians, and could we reply in kind calling them a name?
15
You have some 40 million intellectually impaired men and women in this country who used to be limited to sharing their absurdist ignorance in their individual/tribal communities.
BUT now they have been united into a tsunamic political force of
"Stupid" through the internet.
The great Kruger Dunning expansion and the old adage "a moron is a genius to another moron" has fueled the firestorm of anti- intelligence and elevated gross ignorance to heights never before witnessed.
OK -The Dark Ages was worse but not if the evangelists have their way.
35
The GOP is actually a fusion of fascism and communism. We use the "F" word because we are still stuck with this left/right scale system. Trumps GOP is playing footsie with Putin (ex KGB), China and N. Korea while giving favors and subsidies to big US companies in the same way all authoritarian governments do, no matter if you classify them "commie" or right wing. The GOP believes in Socialism for the Rich, free enterprise for the poor, state controlled capitalism and elections run by Russia and Fox News.
24
Social security and Medicare sure make my life better. I'm trying to think of something Republicans have done to make my life better but I'm drawing a blank. Call these programs what you want, it will not matter.
54
What is the name of a government controlled by the owners of means of production?as we have it now? It seems that is what is what we have now.
Just asking
17
The "F" word that would better describe the republican party is not fascism, it's feudalism.
Let's call it for what they truly represent and who they work for.
Our political candidates need to reframe their messages as such.
114
I wonder what Edmund Burke or even Robert Taft would think of today's "conservatives". It seems to me that many of them either want to conserve the power of large corporations or their own power.
Adam Smith, "a conservative hero" warned about those who live by profit and who have deceived the public.
100
One can witness the pathetic situation of Americans trying to debate their national identity with ignorance against mystique.
They are still wondering how a con man could bring the nation so low.
6
But the Democrats say they are socialists. The Republicans don't claim to be fascists. That's a big difference.
2
@Michael Livingston’s, none of them, except Bernie claims to be "socialist," and he qualifies that with "democratic." The right has used this term egregiously, and thoroughly incorrectly forever. Americans don't study political philosophy, so in this sense we are wholly vulnerable to liars and misfits who pander to our fears. As for the GOP, they really are flirting with fascism, but you'd have to study and know some history to see it. Most don't, and never will.
30
"Trump Says Democrats Will Ban Hamberders..."
FIFY, Dr. Krugman.
3
That study definitely placed today's GOP closer to fascism than the Democrats to full-blown socialists.
I forget - what did the freedom-loving people used to do with fascists? Might want to check in with Mussolini and others of that era.
13
I love you Paul! Great piece as always! And yes, they are FASCISTS!
20
Krugman is right, the Democrats on the stage are certainly not socialists. But blaming the Republicans for this is absurd, when several of the stars of the party are claiming this label for themselves.
4
The conservative Supreme Court is likely to reinterpret the "non-delegation doctrine" by which the Constitution reserves legislative powers to the Congress alone. The twentieth century regulatory state arguably breached this notion by allowing Executive Branch agencies to adopt vast masses of regulation. The Court looks poised to make major cutbacks.
The next president may need to think, not about effective federal actions to deal with the global warming crisis, universal health care, or bringing back environmental regulations, but merely about how to minimize damage as long-standing regulatory authorities get ruled unconstitutional. There soon may be no Affordable Care Act and no reasonable way to enact a replacement, no way to regulate carbon emissions, no way to revive the EPA. Maybe not even a Food and Drug Administration.
As for the Congress, I suspect a Republican Senate in 2021, and if not, there will be enough Republicans to block meaningful legislation.
5
Professor Krugman you are too polite. Although there is great dispute about the meaning of the terms "fascist and fascism", Merriam Webster defines it thus:
Definition of fascism
1 often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
This is a perfect description of Trump's and McConnell's Republican Party today. It is time to call a spade a spade, and a fascist a fascist.
26
I do not want the U.S. to be like Denmark. If it were, over half my paycheck would go for taxes. No thank you.
2
I see still more "false equivalence" coming … and will wonder more and more and again how any responsible media can fail to see it as 'unbecoming.'
2
"Still, a lot will depend on how the news media handle dishonest attacks. Will we keep seeing headlines that repeat false claims (“Trump Says Democrats Will Ban Hamburgers”), with the information that the claim is false buried deep inside the article?"
Yep, the latter. The media (including, ahem) who brought us the Iraq war and Donald Trump will fold again to their GOP Daddies. Not the slightest doubt in my mind.
7
The Republicans have framed the public debate for so long it's hard to remember what really important. They do that in part because they tell people what they want to hear, in part because they take complex issues and boil them down to 30 second sound bytes, and in part, because they lie with abandon (and with few if any consequences). If the Democrats can't take control of the narrative I'm afraid we won't be even a broken Democracy for very much longer.
22
Prof. Krugman's point about how the media handle trump's predicable tsunami of lies during the campaigns is solid.
A somewhat humorous journalism parable is that a newspaper out to damage a city mayor sends a reporter to city hall to ask the mayor about an anonymous claim that he is a communist. When the mayor responds that he is not, the next day's banner headline reads, "MAYOR DENIES HE'S A COMMUNIST."
The media can lead a story with trump's latest lie as if it might have some validity, or it can lead the story with the fact that trump lied, again. The editors and news directors can play it the way they want.
13
I have made many non posted comments that if Republicans continue in their extreme right wing and antidemocratic path...in the broadest sense not just the name of a political party..you will end up with a violent revolution. To myself as an external, moderate observer what the Republicans routinely do...private jails letting people die, charging a pregnant woman shot by another for killing her foetus is absolutely filthy. Just read your article about the Polish Holocost survivor who documented his family's murder by the nazis and thought about your Republicans.
9
Coverage of actual policy proposals rapidly gets technical, and policy recommendations will turn readers off if they disagree with these recommendations. Coverage of the chances of various proposals is much less technical or uses technicalities that are familiar because they recur in all horse-race analyses. It is also less likely to turn readers off unless it is obviously biased in ways they disagree with.
The news media are businesses, and they are very successful because they know how to attract readers, viewers, listeners, and clicks. This is why the standard coverage is horse-race, and why this standard will continue.
Like Trump, this horse-race coverage is bad for democracy but great for the mass media business.
Our real and heavily-promoted love affair with free enterprise works against democracy and whatever love we have for it. It is sort of like America's love affair with the automobile; in most of the country, we are inescapably married to our autos, so we might as well make the best of it and love them. The automobile sector of our economy promotes the love affair so that we will not spend enough to have the alternative of public transit as Europe does.
3
The wealthy want the profits privatized and the losses socialized. Too big to fail. Oh, and huge tax breaks federal, state and local.
18
Does anyone under 50 even consider the word "socialist" to be scary anymore?
It's been used so much it's lost its meaning, which is only going to end in disaster for Republicans once a real socialist comes to power and the word has simply come to mean "someone who wants the government to do things besides provide for the military and cut taxes."
15
Lincoln kept his Gettysburg address short. His profound words and the Enlightenment, i.e. the Beautiful Founding Fathers (BFF) that inspired them, would be not long remembered. The two BFFs that had their doubts, Franklin and Washington, knew that this experiment, the new nation, would probably not last.
Washington said he did not want to become king. Trump says why not.
12
I can't help but think that the word which best describes the U.S. government whenever the Republican party is in charge (whether Reagan, Bush I/II or Trump) is kakistocracy, which is defined as "a system of government run by the worst, least qualified or most unscrupulous citizens."
23
The unrelenting attack on democrats and the "mainstream" media means the automatic discounting of anything they might say. Better, they lie than tell the truth, because whatever they state will not be believed by the faithful.
And don't under-estimate what the faithful will do, even to themselves. Remember Jonestown.
10
Republican policies today are remarkably similar to those of Hugo Chavez. The president is madly interfering with free Enterprise when he restricts trade, chooses coal over more modern energy sources, and rewards his cronies at the expense of 99% of American citizens. What is the difference between the government owning means of production and the 1% of vulture "capitalists" owning the government? Nothing. Democrats are the more honest saviors of capitalism.
20
@Grant Edwards
I'd like to think an educated, 99% voting public would be more honest than either political party.
1
The political ignorance of Americans as a people is appalling. It is this ignorance that allows the Republicans to attract throngs of hard working white voters who cannot understand the the Republican Party is run by and for the rich at the expense of everyone else. Telling people they can go back to a "better" time that is actually gone forever is a technique used again and again by dictators. Mindless political labels like TV advertising cover over the true state of affairs. It is a Republican hoax that is perpetrated by the right wing propaganda machines Fox News, Breitbart, NY Post, Washington Examiner, etc. Working people voting completely against their own interests is nothing new, just very sad and frustrating.
17
I agree with this analysis. However I think it would be wise for the Democrats to emphasize the good in the private sector and how the value of the private sector can help all people, as well as the need to enlarge the safety net. Small businesses rather than corporations are fearful of "socialism" and you need small business on the side of the Democrats.
7
@David
I have a small business, and the "socialism" I fear is the kind that Amazon gets.
5
Mr. Krugman, thank you for a highlighting a problem many journalists, especially TV & radio reporters, have: reporting outrageous Trump comments, without making it absolutely clear those statements are false. Reporters must do that, when they write "into" and "out of" those soundbites. One problem: every word counts, to keep a TV package below two minutes or a minute 30. Radio stories are usually much shorter. So, Trump sound is frequently used without the critical explanation or context.
4
You should be a "socialist" when you are advocating policies for the benefits of the majority of the people. This is not "left" or "right", but "center".
Isn't it that all elected officials should be doing in a democracy where the majority rules?
3
During all the debates, either in the primaries or in the general election, the candidate who is questioned by the media must not be interrupted during their short time they have to speak. All the other candidate's microphones MUST be muted (turned off) until it is their turn to speak.
Then we can have civilized debates.
And should a candidate speak anything "bad" like name calling, which I am not sure happened very often before Trump, then their microphones should also be turned off until they become civilized like politicians use to be.
Ronald Reagan in his debates kept repeating "there he goes again" during the Carter-Reagan debates, is acceptable language, "crooked Hillary" or "lazy Joe" is NOT acceptable nor is any name calling.
10
"Will we get coverage of actual policy proposals..."? Why start now? That hasn't been the case for decades, and certainly was completely absent from the 2016 election.
4
Thank you, Dr. Krugman, for some much needed context. We have, in many ways, become numb to the extremism of the Republican Party.
Another example of this extremism is the recent abortion laws in Alabama and elsewhere. As some have pointed out, these laws would not just take us back to a pre-Roe America. They are much more punitive and based in much more radical terms (fetal personhood, etc.) than anything that existed 40+ years ago.
At the very least, the Republican party flirts with theocratic, fascistic ideology. It has taken all of us too long to wake up and realize how far it's gone. I just hope that it's not too late to save our country from these extremists.
13
@Jenna
Yes, a thank you to Dr. Krugman!
And agreement with all you have said here. Let's hope "it's not too late to save our country from these extremists."
3
Maybe it would be wise for the fringe Democrat candidates to stop characterizing the leading candidates as socialists.
15
@Thomas Belli
Agressive wealth re-distribution is socialist.
1
@dmckj
We already HAVE aggressive wealth re-distribution. It's all going to the top.
12
The Supreme Court just added to this with a Plessy vs Ferguson ruling on gerrymandering. Chief Justice Roberts couldn't find any rights in the Constitution that might be violated by the computer data fine tuned gerrymandering we see now, with the goal of disenfranchising large sections of the electorate. We know Trump hasn't read the Constitution, but does this also apply to Roberts? We have 3/5 (or worse) personhood sown into the Constitution in the way Senators are selected, which carries over to the Electoral College. But there is also the principle of "one man, one vote", which should be upheld in all other circumstances, including abolishing one man/one party restrictions of bringing up bills for a vote in Congress, where there is a reasonable chance for passage.
5
What we need is a new term that essentially means "social democrat" in the European sense, without the word "social" (which gets twisted to socialism). Most people in the U.S. are not familiar with these terms and their specific meanings. Suggestions?
6
Whatever term is used, the far right has an enormous amount of money to hire Madison Avenue to turn it into a negative term.
2
I think Dr. Krugman was stating that though there were threads of socialist thinking among the ten Democratic, and perhaps the last ten Democratics Candidates for the nomination for President, there was no actual socialism as he, an economist, knows of.
Thus my comment. If I were a debate coordinator, I would have posed the question, in what way would government economic-legal solutions for the vast body of Americans - that huge mass of people who live just at the poverty line (25K a year), rise to socialism?
The socialist states I see or socialism in Action does not have much to do with killing capitalism, but rather is a collective of varied parties, not just 2, which work by consensous rather than a house against house, a senate against a senate, and finally the President who can puncture months worth of progressive efforts with one stab of his veto.
Dr. Krugman is right. The Republicans are those of the gilded age; they have mob bosses in the midst influencing and controlling infrastructure development (obstructing it mostly), they have mob rulers in Russia calling the shots and steering our political voting system, and they have trampled the American - the generationally, Caucasian and or African American, or Native American or Asian Americans, from sustaining safe livelihoods by giving corporate America free reign to move jobs overseas.
3
I know multiple western (and Eastern) Europenas in this country who voted against "socialism" and for "capitalism" and moved to this country. They are young healthy and energetic, as well as self-reliant. The Americans who voted in the opposite direction are usually old and liberally over-educated. Let a casual independent observer judge for herself.
The media did Trump a humongous favor in 2016 by devoting so much free publicity to him as they reported on his every outrageous action, tweet or statement.
Trump knew this and played them like a violin. Hopefully the media has learned its lesson: an awful lot of what Trump pulled was mere diversion, intended both to bury his real agenda (about which he blatantly lied anyway) under a pile of manure and to generate tons of free publicity. Most of what he did say and do was basically throwing red meat to his base and attempting to collect as many Obama Democrats as possible.
The media needs to effectively analyze Trump’s actions and statements, ignoring the attention grabbing diversions entirely and focusing on whatever substantive he actually says (if anything). The media also needs to provide more coverage to the other candidates, especially their positions on by the issues.
9
The Republican Party's cry of "Socialism!" against Democrats will grow louder into the November election. This is the party of the big, ever louder lies. The once-great (not since Lincoln) Republican Party has degenerated into the party of permanent dishonesty and constant whoppers.
11
@Jim Steinberg riiight. ate the democrat party is the one of truth, moderation, and common sense. yep, a typical NYT reader.
2
Krugman is right about the definition of socialism, but wrong to think that this implies that anti-liberal, un-democratic, authoritarian tendencies are only in one party.
Extremists on each side seeks demons: immigrants, the rich, the cultural elites, the economic elites, corporations, secularists, and anyone else blame can be shifted to.
2
We have been taught in school from the time we can remember that capitalism is good and equated with freedom. What we need to address is a particular form of predatory capitalism that brought us the great recession. There is nothing open and democratic about a rigged system that operates behind closed doors and escaped unscathed after causing worldwide recession.
For every dog whistle cry of the evils of "socialism" just ask your conservative friends how many are willing to give up their Medicare. You will not find any takers even among the most hard core "conservative patriots."
15
Communication in the most effective, direct and simplest form is what Is lacking on the left.
Republicans have been accidental geniuses. Their messaging has been aimed at the lowest common denominator and its insouciant delivery through Trump and its relentless reinforcement via ‘Fox News Theater’ has been very successful. Keep ‘em scared and keep ‘em spending.
Democrats should unify messaging on just what it is the party stands for. Mr. Krugman’s
definition of (Euro-social democrats) is clean, simple and powerful enough that even the most cynical or gullible Trumpista (if repeated publicly enough by candidates and in all media platforms) will ‘get it’.
3
Republicans say they are against socialism, the kind of socialism that are trying to convince everyone is bad: giving money away. Meanwhile, Republicans are practicing the highest form of socialism right now - showering constituents with money.
A Republican 2017 trillion dollar tax cut that benefited the very, very well off.
trump's 2018 $12.2 billion and today's 2019 $16 billion bailout to farmers (trump's personally created problem).
Corporations benefit from tax loopholes to the tune of over $1.4 trillion annually.
Remember: whatever they are accusing someone of doing, it's only to distract us as they ARE doing it.
11
@LivingWithInterest
Well said. The Republican Party machine is so very clever and conniving; they get the ignorant wannabes of their party to do the "Brownshirting" as a distraction, so they can push their agenda all the way, even to the Supreme Court, if necessary.
7
Yesterday my 14-year-old son asked why so much is spent on the military when for him and his young friends there is less and less to defend in a country that works only for the very, very few. He sees a bleak future for himself, despite being male and white and fairly middle class. Imagine all the young Americans not like him who feel even more abandoned by a government of and by and for the obscenely wealthy and callous. Do you really think this younger generation is going to die in wars “protecting” a country that doesn’t care about them or their future? While young people feel hopeless Republicans sloganeer about “freedom” or America being “great.”
264
@My wife’safarmer
Good point. But can we finally drop the pretense that it's only Republicans interested in getting us into these idiotic wars - and note that Trump, for all his reckless bluster, has yet to do so?
There is no "peace coalition" to be found anywhere in Washington. There is too much power to gain as a "wartime senator, president, etc." and too much money to be made off of arms sales.
15
@Livonian Nice use of another tried and true trope of the right -- a false equivalency narrative.
So, when do you think we're finally going to get to the bottom of Hillary's e-mails?
12
The problem Republicans face is that their ideas (which seem to have come to birth under Ronald Reagan) have failed, utterly. And the problem is, the real problem for them is that most people know it. The Republicans are left only with ruse as their strategy. They have no ideas, no solutions, so the longer they are in power, the worse things will get, and more and more people will wake up to the fact. That spells doom. They can attempt totalitarian rule, but I'm pretty sure that will fail in the end. America abhors a tyrant.
2
Included in the list of authoritarian practices Krugman finds today's GOP embracing:
..and stripping power from offices the other party manages to win..
This is what Maduro did in Venezuela when he replaced the National Assembly with a "constituent assembly". So it's not just fascist-nostalgic central European states that provide the model of dirty behavior that is becoming the standard for GOP strategy today.
The GOP probably thinks history will absolve them. They have another thing coming.
3
Until Jack suspended me last week, I'd been tweeting out It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis. And every bit I sent, I got chills down my spine. It is scary how similar the time-line is, it's as if someone at the White House made a mistake, and started reading the book, and said, 'Oh, this sounds like a great plan!', and put it into action. I haven't gotten to the end of the book yet, and neither has this administration. I don't know how either will turn out. I'm scared to find out.
2
Paul, you forgot to mention the now enshrined in law fact, that we will have partisan gerrymandering for generations to come. Oh the joy!........or not. And I forgot to mention the fact that GOP appointees carried the day on the decision.
4
republicans have been neo-fascists for about four decades now and any time they call a democrat a socialist , the offender should rightly be labeled a fascist, as the latter likely has the policy chops to deserve it.
7
I continue to be amazed that people we describe as "working class" praise Donald Trump and policies that can be described only as inhumane and Fascist. These people today would have a problem with Ike.
5
Let's make this easy; Given the choice between a fascist party and a socialist party, which party would you vote for?
2
I see this as the most critical question for determining the future of our nation: "Will we get coverage of actual policy proposals, as opposed to horse-race analysis that only asks how those proposals seem to be playing?"
The news media does a disservice to citizens with just repeating what Trump or McConnell or other Trump apparatchiks have to say, and that is what we are frequently getting when we turn on the TV or read an account of a political event in the newspaper.
Trump lies multiple times a day, and routinely repeats the lies. Trump may not fairly be called a student of Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi minister of propaganda, but he certainly understands what this notorious Nazi had to say about lying and repeating the lie: "“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."
5
Old words can take on new definitions as people's minds evolve and change with changing circumstances. Whatever socialism has meant in the past, I propose this definition: socialism is acting in the best interests of a whole society instead of the interests of one or a very few well-protected groups standing outside of society and its greater needs. People need good jobs, affordable healthcare, safe streets, outstanding education at all levels, affordable and safe housing, a healthy Earth environment, and the rights outlined in our Bill of Rights, Constitution, and Declaration of Independence. Socialism is by and for The People who are the bedrock of society. Let's go.
3
Prof. Krugman - you missed the part about the Repubs resembling more closely their definition of socialism -- subsidizing something using taxpayer funds through government programs -- than the Dems are. It's just that their socialism is geared toward handing tax dollars to (or foregoing tax revenue from) the already uber wealthy, rather than to those who need the help. Low corporate tax rates (resulting in many highly profitable corporation paying zero in taxes even though their businesses rely on our military, police and fire forces for security, and our roadways to transport goods and our airways to transport goods and their executives and on and on), low tax rates for unearned income, subsidies for oil, gas and big agra, indirect subsidies for the military industrial complex through unchecked, obscene military spending, ditto private prisons and private concentration camps for migrant kids. If you want to see the use of the public fisc to benefit a group of people, just look at the GOP and their overlords and masters.
8
Is what you described socialism or more correctly, in my opinion, crony capitalism?
1
@Paul P - potato, potato. The result is the same. Pooled resources, raised from the masses, distributed to the few.
2
Here in Oregon we are experiencing what Republicans do when they can't win elections and don't like any legislation to combat global warming. They just walk out of the state senate chambers, so that a quorum can't be formed.
Hundred of bills won't be passed by the end of the session in two days. In Oregon, democracy is dead.
11
Here in the comments we can read the intellectual level of Americans about politics.
No analysis, no knowledge of concepts, no idea of what an economy is (not making money...), no sense of public organisation.
it is still the same Self psychology as in England ; a mystique of personal freedom.
The idea of Liberty is not personal freedom. It is political freedom.
Americans don't even know the meaning of the French statue of Liberty we offered them in New York.
1
@JPH: We live under the law of ostensibly negotiated contracts, built on the US Constitution, an ostensible contract itself, which provides the framework for making and implementing federal laws in the US.
1
@Steve Bolger All educated people know that the USA are historically manipulated by private corporations.
If we look ate the laws that legifer your health system, your education system, your judicial system, your penal system, the results are very poor.
1
Thank you, Paul, for that succinct description of the difference between "Socialist" Democrats and "Facist" Republicans for those who cannot make the distinction. The question is then, "Who owns the means of production?" Another question which might help clarify the political morass we face today is, "Who controls the wealth and through it the political processes?" (The Golden Rule: Those who have the gold, rule."Ain't it the truth?) The primary problem is that the Republican propaganda machine has been spewing out its misinformation (lies?) and deception , for many decades, capping it off with the current occupant of the White House as its' chief spokesman and its' embodiment. When will the Democrats get the message and counteract this obvious threat to our Democracy?
5
@Del: Here in the US, stockholders are supposed to own means of production. Now were getting squeezed out by managements taking companies private by buying in their own stock with money from corporate tax cuts.
1
It doesn’t seem like a very good idea for Bernie to push the term “socialist”..
Some of the best things about America are its “Socialist” aspects - roads, emergency services, Social Security, etc.
Americans are just too used too used to the demonizing uses of the term by capitalists.
4
"Will we keep seeing headlines that repeat false claims (“Trump Says Democrats Will Ban Hamburgers”), with the information that the claim is false buried deep inside the article?"
Yes, guaranteed, as much as ever. Journalism has not confronted its own massive failings. Journalists and talking heads refuse to even recognize their own part in undermining democracy. Like the Republican Party, they refuse to take an honest look at themselves.
"Will we get coverage of actual policy proposals, as opposed to horse-race analysis that only asks how those proposals seem to be playing?"
No, guaranteed. Ditto.
9
The Republicans have become wholly committed to what Orwell called "newspeak". They replace verifiable facts with self-serving propaganda, and undoubtedly have a huge playbook with directions for any situation. Mr. Barr's coverup of the Mueller Report is a prime example, and one that apparently worked for many ... although hopefully Mr. Mueller's upcoming appearance before congress will show that connivance for what it is. Their use of the word "socialist" is meant as a dog whistle implying "communist", never mind that our country already has large, popular and successful socialist policies.
Straight propaganda.
5
Thank you, Mr. Krugman, for speaking the truth. One of our problems is that our lifetimes are short - our actual knowledge of the tragedies of the 20th Century, of Nazism, the formation of the USSR, Mao's China, and Japan's depredations, are not taught in our schools. Instead, our children learn about American Exceptionalism and grow up believing that our history is the story of the "good guys". That we are an entirely virtuous nation that had to kill off a few uncooperative Native Americans in order to achieve the God-given ideal of Manifest Destiny. But today, our shores and peaceful neighbors no longer confer a competitive advantage in this new, hyper-connected world with its globalized economy and its democratization of information.
We have lost our national identity - and our hyper-partisanship will destroy our democracy if we fail to question our national mythology and fail to strengthen the very government institutions that have are being dismantled by the very authoritarianism that our founding documents sought to prevent from taking root in America. It's time to call Republican policy what it is: sadistic, greedy, and unpatriotic. The GOP is an insurgent party that is dismantling our democracy. Let's use big boy words to talk about the GOP and the threat it poses for the future of our country.
https://www.facebook.com/debby.long.98499
8
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and flies like a duck, it is probably a duck. Calling for plans to redistribute wealth, socializing medicine, allowing anyone who has the slightest inclination, (and they will given the promise of free healthcare and food and housing benefits), a free pass to live here, free college and reparations to gay couples and descendants of slaves sure sounds a lot more like socialism to me than just a readjustment of the status quo. With the exception of reparations, Hugo Chavez did all of those things and no one wants to live in Venezuela anymore. Want to complete the outsourcing of american business? Go ahead and tax the wealthy at a rate of 70%. Unless we pass a law barring people from leaving the United States, the wealthy will simply find a country to live in that is more favorable to them and there will be plenty of takers. This opinion strikes me as coming from an coastal liberal elitist who is once again telling all of us dumb people what is good for them. Well I am a student of history and I know that Socialism has never delivered on its promises. And you can call it Swan but its still a duck.
1
We could go a long way by simply using accurate words in headlines. When Trump lies (that is, says basically anything), say so. "Trump Lies That Democrats Will Ban Hamburgers". Gosh, that'd be refreshingly accurate.
3
A perspective from London. Corbyn (the current labour leader) is routinely smeared in the right-wing (and mainstream) media as be being a mad socialist ('pro-Hamas/anti-semite") who will destroy the country (as if Brexit wasn't achieving that very well). And the 'sensible' right wing commentariat say: 'if only Labour had a sensible leader, I would support them". But the reality is that every Labour leader in my lifetime has been smeared in the same way: Tony Blair ("swivel eyed tax grabber'), Gordon Brown ('tax and spend Scottish loon') and Ed Miliband ("son of a marxist academic"). The truth is that in both the US and UK anyone espousing policy outwith the Thatcher/Reagan hegemony will be thus decried. I guess it's just more extreme in the states. By way of comparison, Senator Sanders' health care polices are to the right of the current conservative government in the UK....
9
I can't guess. Surprise me.
Trump was telling the truth when he said he loves the "poorly educated." The GOP base seems to use the words socialist, communist and fascist interchangeably because they don't understand political theory (in fairness, most people don't, but Fox News exploits the GOP base's lack of knowledge). At rallies they call Obama, Clinton, AOC, etc. communists or socialists but in the same breath compare them to Hitler (a fascist). Many on the right even believe Nazis were socialists because of the name "National Socialism." This partly explains why they do not understand the parallels between Trumpism and fascism or recognize the danger; they don’t realize that the ideals they cheer are actually antithetical to American ideals (i.e., unpatriotic). Like all followers of authoritarians and fascists, they have been fooled into believing they are the “real” patriots vis-à-vis trumped-up domestic and foreign enemies, and just the thought that they could be wrong threatens the very foundation of their identity. Of course, Trump’s using them just like he uses everyone else, but he made them feel like they matter – maybe for the first time in their lives. Like a cult leader. Sad.
11
@Aaron
Isn't it both funny and tragic that Trump can say that he loves the poorly educated and the poorly educated just don't get it?
5
Why not tell it like it is? By any reasonable definition, they are fascists.
12
"Still, a lot will depend on how the news media handle dishonest attacks. Will we keep seeing headlines that repeat false claims (“Trump Says Democrats Will Ban Hamburgers”), with the information that the claim is false buried deep inside the article? Will we get coverage of actual policy proposals, as opposed to horse-race analysis that only asks how those proposals seem to be playing?"
I have seen these questions regarding the behavior of the press/ media over the last 20 years or so enough that I am beginning to wonder to what degree our "press" may already be complicit in the subjugation of America by the GOP. Is it really that far fetched to speculate that the corporate media have sold out the public in pursuit of money? And that most of our "information" is tainted now? It would explain the apparent cowardice of the press and their fear of being labeled biased. It would explain the pervasive false equivalency we see daily, even in the pages of the NYT.
5
Great piece, but Krugman should have carried his "S word" analysis as it pertains to Venezuela a step farther.
What is happening in Venezuela today is not the result of socialism but of authoritarian rule mixed with its constant companion, corruption. By standing by Trump as he ignores and dismantles controls on the unbridled exercise of executive power as he lines his own pockets, the GOP is the party that is moving America in the direction of Venezuela.
6
It may be that the ever more pointed attacks on journalists (and even the murders of journalists in other strong-man countries) may focus the minds of the writers and editors of influential news outlets powerfully. One tends to see less of the "both sides now" narrative these days. Here's hoping we can have a new re-dedication to first principles, and dedicate the effort to Jamal Khashoggi.
3
One of the most clear, concise, honest articles I’ve seen in a while! Thank you! From my point of view it appears automation is destroying capitalism as we know it. We seem to have two choices. Either a jobless society run by a corporate state where Americans are thrown out of work permanently. Or an innovative American socialism(think lightbulb, car, flight, sandwich heavy on mayo/mustard) based on automation, where we learn how to incorporate all into the system to benefit all. It’s nice to know large portions of the younger generations aren’t stuck in moral views of socialism but rather what a new living socialism could be. Feudalism died, capitalism also has a shelf life. Unless we Americans create and pioneer a new socialism the momentum of our country seems to be towards consolidation of power, private property, hegemony. This translates to loss of freedoms we have known for some time. All regardless of what political party sits in government, blue or red.
3
Dr. K,
After watching both debates I have concluded that you should use your tutorial gift to explain the concept of insurance. There appears to be a low understanding of the actuarial nature of the size of the risk pool versus risk to the participants. Shockingly, some of the debaters seem to not understand that everyone who earns a paycheck pays into the "health insurance trust fund."
Good essay today on the economic "isms".
3
Too many Americans conflate socialism with communism, just as they conflate single-payer health insurance (Medicare for All) with socialized medicine. Medicare is not socialized medicine. The VA is. Democrats need to do a better job of making these distinctions in the stump and in debates to help the media and the electorate comprehend the difference. Further, the
democratic candidates should read Krugman everyday, absorb his knowledge and clarity, then incorporate it in their debates, speeches and Q & A sessions. So far, only Warren comes even close to doing so. If they don’t, 2020 will turn into a Red Scare when it should be an Orange Scare.
4
"remarkable how blasé we’ve become" ... not quite true! It gets my blood boiling but what exactly are we supposed to do?!
1
This discussion reminds me of the conversation often attributed to Adlai Stevenson:
Woman: Mr. Stevenson, every thinking American is behind you.
Stevenson: Thank you, madam, but I need a majority.
13
Paul Krugman asks "Will we get coverage of actual policy proposals, as opposed to horse-race analysis that only asks how those proposals seem to be playing?" The answer is yes, if the NYT or other outlets commits to doing number crunching analysis of proposals from each party.
1
What is the difference between the adjectives "socialist" and "social"? If the right wants to demonize the left by referring to their "socialist agenda," the left only need say it is a "social agenda" which is a stated purpose of democracy, inclusive and supportive. The right is really demonizing Society and the cooperation and compassion upon which it depends.
12
A perfect response, jimmi99
3
The Republican game plan for the election is built on two simple lies that will be repeated over and over:
1. Democrats are socialists
2. Democrats are for open borders
These item scare the bejeebus out of middle America.
6
Great article! Thank you!
4
Good post, Dr Krugman. Please keep pounding the out-of-whack media, Fox News and otherwise. We cannot let poor journalism further rot our national foundations.
9
Instead of "Social Democrats" can we move to "Safety Net Democrats?"
Republicans would've brought in Frank Luntz to fix this two decades ago!
2
Why in the world aren’t Democrats correctly calling Republicans fascists when they’re being fascists? It’s befuddling why Republicans still get away with going for the gut and Democrats still try to play civility. Democrats need to take over the socialist brand and they need to call Republicans fascists because that wing of their party is ascendant and calling the shots now. If we can’t learn to be as blunt and direct as they are, we’re going to lose. Again.
8
These were bot classic debates. One has to be on a debate team at a high school to get involved with real debating
1
For the life of me I do not understand why the Democrats do not embrace the accurate description Krugman describes as the Republican Party. They hate America and everything that it stands for!!!!
6
We need to remember that "socalism" became a poison pill when the Bolshevics threw out the priests and "godless communism" became the threat of the Century. Hence "Under God," and on and on.
2
Thanks Mr. Krugman for giving us an easy to use label for the Republican party. Every time someone calls a democrat a socialist we should call a republican a fascist.
5
Paul the S Word and the F Word May be consequential in 2020, but as another NYT Op Ed notes, “This Democratic Debate Issue Has Tremendous Promise and Peril — The E Word, EMPIRE”
1
You Americans should stop the bickering and just get Civil War 2 over with. Let the worst ones win!
I doubt these protesters read the NYT's or anything, for that matter.
4
Bernie Sanders got it right in the OP ED this week in The Wall street Journal. He pointed out that everyone is a socialist. The Republicans are big socialists. George W Bush began the socializing the debt of the big banks and wall street in 2007 and 2008 by bailing them out with a few trillion dollars. Today tax payers subsidize 100s of millions of businessess yearly with "grants" to create jobs. The New York times should reprint Bernie's article in the wsj.
Remember everone is a socialist. Some people are corporate Socialist who believe taxpayer dollars needs to go to Corporations so that the penies will trickle down to the masses. Then there are Communist socialists who believe one party, fake votes, and an elite decides who is worthy. There are the national socialists, who 100 years ago were called Fascists or Nazis who are like communists except they believe only a master race deserves socialism and steals money from everyone else. The other type of socialism, is as mentioned here, is called democratic socialism which most of western Europe has, Australia, Canada, Japan etc. FDR brought to America during the depression almost 90 years ago President Johnson tried to build on FDR in the 1960; but he got lost in the Vietnam War. As for some form of Health care for all, everyone from Truman to Nixon has tried to bring it in after WW ll with no success.
3
Where is Gemli? I miss him so much...
1
It's not over the top to paint much of the republican party as fascist. They buy into trump's alternate universe and the game show mentality running this administration. They nothing for the people and haven't for a long time. trump wants to be a dictator and the party is behind him.
4
Gang GOP, unpresidential trump, and all of the pathetic unamerican followers, are the problem with our great Nation. They have truly lost their way. Morally bankrupt, even if it’s against their own needs. Hate, fear and lust for domination is their calling card. 2020 is a special moment in time, as was 2000. I will vote for any that will tip the scales back to democratic values. Vote blue everyone in 2020..
5
An aside: Mr. Krugman, could I point out your habit of using the "Oh, and..." expression in just about every column? It gives every column the same tone. Snark can be effective when it's fresh and on target, and you do a fine job of calling out Republicanism. But it's time to leave "Oh, and..." behind.
1
Personally I would have no problem in labeling the Republicans a Fascist Party. The study referred to by Mr. Krugman clearly indicates that the Republicans are taking positions to the right of Ms. LePen’s party platform, which is clearly and openly fascist, so why hasn’t the media pointed that out and referred to Republicans as American Fascists?
4
When I saw the sub-headline "Guess which party is really un-American" I felt I had to read the column to find out.
Actually, I didn't. So I didn't read the column.
I have thought for many years that the national GOP had already embraced what I then called “Fascism Light.” Built around extreme religion, militant nationalism, worship of all things guns, rabid in its hatred of those “others,” favoring the richest among us in all things, mysognist and 100% male oriented, cult like in its adherence to “The Leader,” I think we can now use the word Fascist. If you disagree, take a good, hard look at who shows up as delegates at the 2020 Republican convention.
7
What will the corporate media do in the upcoming campaign?
Contrast Chuck Todd's disgraceful interview with Dishonest Donald and his slanted questions to the Democratic candidates for president.
3
When Senator Kamala Harris stated last night "American does not want to witness a food fight, they want to know how we are going to put food on their table" I was shocked. Do these candidates really see themselves in that way? The modern politicians of both parties do very little to do anything but fight and run for re-election. We need politicians that understand that the best that they can do is attempt to have policies that help the economy and job creation. I have never witnessed one that actually could do more than that. Trump supporters are now wearing hats that state Keep America Great. You have to be a complete idiot to think this guy has done very much in the
1
The People must stand up. We can talk, but we must act. We must be relentless in our vision of a fair and equitable society, regardless of labels. And further, we must stop being jerked-around by the negative messages of any party (right now, Republicans) and stand up for what we all know--as humans beings--is right. THAT is the America I want to live in.
3
Passing this on to David Brooks whose latest "Dems, Please Don’t Drive Me Away" really irked me.
5
"Politicizing the judiciary (Supreme Court), creating rigged election rules (gerrymandering and naked voter suppression laws), suppressing opposition media (no more White House briefings and repeated charges of Fake News) and using the power of the state to reward the party’s cronies while punishing businesses that don’t toe the line (Elaine Chao good, Jeff Bezos bad)." Sounds like Trump's GOP. Sounds fascist.
4
Nationalism, not fascism, is the right wing equivalent of socialism. Fascism is the right wing equivalent of communism. Krugman is being uncharacteristically sloppy.
1
It’s “somewhat” over the top to call Trump’s Republican Party fascist? Reportedly, even Meg Whitman, EBay CEO and former California Republican candidate for governor, used the F word to describe Trump.
I admit that many of us on the Left used the F word too easily in the past. But today it’s no exaggeration.
6
Trump's dream matchup would be him vs. a black candidate. After the Democrats finish off Biden, that may be exactly what happens.
I think this comment is not misplaced. The media to act responsibly needs to get out from behind their desks as they did for Katrina and go to the story which is how children coming to the country are treated the way a fascist government would
That these pictures and those of bodies ripped up by bullets are not streaming into our homes prove a passenger be complicity
1
Generally correct, except that Sanders has defined himself as a social democrat, or democratic socialist, since forever.
The GOP is definitely, unquestionably, historically-informed-ly, not-even-the-slightest-whiff-of-using-a-boo-word fascist. Period.
Have a look at this study on Trump-supporters' (90% overlap with GOP voter) views of conflict with North Korea, a Stanford study (https://bit.ly/2Xbpn3j) being highlighted by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists thusly: : "[A] large, hawkish minority—about a third of respondents—approves of a US preventive strike across scenarios—even when US use of nuclear weapons could be expected to kill 1 million North Korean civilians."
More:
"The most disturbing finding in the poll appears in the US nuclear strike scenarios. When the number of expected North Korean fatalities increased from 15,000 to 1.1 million, preference for using nuclear weapons among respondents who favor the death penalty increased from 38 percent to 49 percent (although this is not a statistically significant change). One respondent who supported the death penalty and the US nuclear strike in this scenario explained, “It’s our best chance of eliminating the North Koreans.” Another simply stated, “to end North Korea.” By contrast, preference for the nuclear strike among those who oppose the death penalty fell from 26 percent to 7 percent across the same two scenarios."
That’s called “Nazism.” Itching to eliminate whomever the Dear Leader fingers.
4
The people in the photo do appear to be fascists and nazis (one in the background is doing the white power hand sign). So what is the problem with countering the socialist label with the same kind of labeling the other way. Seems like good marketing to me.
3
Let us speak plainly. The Republican Party meets every definition of corporate fascism. In addition the MAGA-hatters are today's Black Shirts. We must not make the mistakes of the 1930's by refusing to acknowledge what is truly happening in this nation
5
After yelling fire over and that the commies, hippies and now socialist are coming for you, your children, your guns, your church or your money and people waking up to the fact that it's just all lies to cover up their thief of middle class wealth and to divide Americans to continue their control over our lives.
The GOP is going the way of the wigs which can not come soon enough and no American with any common sense or education are still buying what they are selling..
2
The laziest journalism is the one where the headline begins "Trump says . . ." I never read them. When will the media stop putting out such stories?
1
"Basically, if we saw something like America’s Republicans in another country, we’d classify them as white nationalist extremists."
Paul they ARE white nationalist extremists.
4
The Republican Party has become the enemy of the people
4
Maybe calling the GOP out as Fascists is exactly what needs to be done. Fight fire with fire.
6
It might help if the New York Times called out Trump for his lies, by using the word "Lies".
6
Now that women and people of color are allowed to speak up, it is astonishing to see how wide the "Overton Window" was lifted to allow CON moral midgets to air their fascist views, with the complicity of white male supremacists of all political stripes. Now that window has closed down hard and, with the will of the people, will remain nailed shut, condemned, and that house of cards razed to the ground for good.
Republicans are fascists. There. I said it. I believe it. Republicans hate democracy. Republicans hate the truth. Republicans want power at all costs. Fascists. What part of that is not true?
The republicans on the Supreme Court just ruled that gerrymandering is fine. I guess Fascism is now part of the constitution. This democracy is dying. Does anybody care???
7
The S-word will be a killer for Dems. All the Current Resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. has to do is spout it to his base (and in debates) and they will flock to him. They will not spend time on policy explanations that prove that much of what the Dems are proposing is not socialism. They will listen to whatever he says and follow blindly.
Somehow the Dem voice has to be clear and concise (ie: fit it on a bumper sticker) as to how the voters' lives will be better without this thug in office. Short of that, he will ride the name-calling ("Socialists!") to victory.
1
Not soon enough
1
Democratic Socialism is NOT a dirty word and we need to grow up and get educated and that does not mean by feeding on the sewage of radical propaganda ie FOX. The anti-choice people( I refuse to call them "pro-life" simply because they are not) are totally un-American and clearly anti-women & girls....who BTW make up more than 50% of the population.
2
We can term the Republican Party one of reactionaries. They want to take us economically back to the presidency of William McKinley, whom they extol as a hero. Karl Rove's book on McKinley reads like one of Steven Spielberg's "Young Indiana Jones" episodes.
Culturally, they want to take us back to the day of Elizabeth I, a mean-spirited time when Catholicism wasn't tolerated and even some misdemeanors were punishable by death. In those days, the scaffold-ed dead would be displayed at the edge of town to discourage any would-be lawbreakers. Very traditional.
3
Although I have deep and abiding respect for Professor Krugman's economic expertise, wisdom and experience, I strongly disagree with his assertion that Republicans are not quite fascists:
According to every historical description of fascism (see, e.g., Hannah Arendt), the G.O.P. of today is in sum and substance neo-Nazi party. Republicans now advocate:
— “Blood and soil" racist nativism;
— A single (dictatorial) leader propped up by a cult of personality and demanding loyalty to the person rather than the office ("I am the one");
— Politicization of the judiciary (e.g., Gorsuch and Kavanaugh);
— Suppression of democratic processes (e.g., gerrymandering, voter i.d.s, hacked computers, Russian interference);
— Ubiquitous propaganda headlined by Orwellian Newspeak and Goebbelian Big Lies (literally tens of thousands of lies and slanders);
— Co-option of religion in service of the political party (the Southern Baptist and other church endorsement of partisan Republican candidates, policies and programs);
— Partnership between government and favored private companies (e.g., Koch coal interests, Trump brothels, Boeing bombers).
It can and is happening here - and now. THIS IS FASCISM.
7
So the Republicans delight in (falsely) labeling Democrats socialists, but it is verboten to call Republicans fascists — despite the fact the label increasingly fits. OK, how about Totalitarians? That should be an easy narrative to craft with Trump in the WH, McConnell as Senate majority leader, and the spate of Republican governors only too happy to pander and eliminate/reduce healthcare and reproductive rights in their states. Don’t analogize to Hitler; that’s over the top. An occasional reference to Stalin is equally over the top, but the label itself signals anti-Democratic agendas and for that, the evidence abounds with this administration and the craven Republicans that enable it. Let’s give them a label. Sadly, Americans require labels in order to package things in easy to-digest sound bites. The Dems need to play on this field because the Republicans certainly will. Totalitarians, anyone?
3
Republican s don't even know what socialism is. They are that ignorant....and live in their own manufactured reality. What are we to do with such people?
4
But what do we see in the Trump regime, a kleptocracy, an oligarchy, a mobocracy? Yes that fits with fascism. Now we have a racial element, a master race, whites only, government in family decisions, a state religion, violence, attacks on the free press, kidnapping, unspeakable cruelty, concentration camps, MAGA hats in place of armbands, and claims of being above the law and of course campainging only before his followers and never in a town hall.
So I may write “fascist” but I think “Nazi.” He uses Hitler’s play book, the big lie, repeated end repeated become the truth. He uses the military to advance his power and like Hitler he is a meglomaniac. There is one key difference, Hitler had not heal spurs, and won Iron Cross 1st Class and was wounded many times and killed his own rivals.
2
"... imagine the media firestorm, the screams about lost civility, we’d experience if any prominent Democrat described Republicans as a party of fascists, ..."
Paul, where have you been? The Democrats routinely call Republicans Facist, racist, sexist, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, homophobic, etc.
In 2012, then Vice President Joe Biden told a black audience that Republicans "want to put y'all back in chains."
Does it get any lower than that?
1
The Republican Party may not be a fascist party, but it does kowtow to a fascist president in order to preserve its power and riches.
3
As a former Goldwater Republican who learned the hard way, we need an "I" word for policies: "Inhumane". See
https://www.legalreader.com/republican-racketeers-violent-policies/
88
@louis v. lombardo Follow the link above. You will see that Louis does agree with Paul.
3
"Trump Says Democrats Will Ban Hamburgers."
Day after day I see headlines here and elsewhere that repeat Trump's lies, only to amplify them and give them credibility. Krugman's point is well taken and may be the first time I've encountered a figure as major as Krugman voicing frustration about press coverage of Trump's lies. Average American media consumers seldom search many paragraphs down into an article to ascertain if the headline was accurate. Yet, as Krugman points out, that is often where the truth resides.
3
Certain rightward-leaning Democratic presidential hopefuls, such as John Hickenlooper in last night's Democratic presidential debate, bolster Republican prospects by attacking progressive policies through the name-calling inherent in the repeated polemic "Socialism is not the answer".
3
@Robert M The fact that you think Hickenlooper leans rightward shows how far left the Democratic field is.
"Basically ,if we saw something like America's Republican in another country,we'd classify them as white nationalist extremist." Well from where i stand i'd call them The Fascist party of America.
6
The question of S vs F is at this point not important. What is , in my opinion, is the fact that the GOP, has ceased to be a political party, but a cult for DJT. Never , in my 55 years, has the GOP actively ignored the rule of law, to provide cover for an obvious criminal. This is far beyond politics as usual. The GOP, has demonstrated its disdain for the citizens of the US, and a hatred for democracy. Before I get angry responses, look at what has happened over the last decade. Proof is on the news every day. Most conservatives are proud of what is going on. I don’t know if the GOP can ever convince me , this is not true. Rhetoric aside, the evidence is solidly against them.
8
The Democrats are at most a centrist party. There is a wide spectrum of opinion. In 2006 the Democrats were decidedly anti Iraq war. Now they are generally aggressive in their national security stance. My guess is that many Democrats would go along with confronting Iran as long as Israel keeps promoting the idea. The anti Russia hysteria still clouds Democrats thinking and certainly is discouraging. So the Democrats are not the party of peace which generally goes along with Scandinavian socialism. Many Democrats in the Senate are more austerity minded than for expanding the gov'ts role in the economy and social services.
The socialism rant of Fox News and their constant refrain of the left are just idle name calling with very little substance.
1
Hey Dem Debater, here are some "s" words that would be easy to make sound bites against Trump calling you a Socialist!
Substance....Sustainability.....Safety Net....Social Security...Smog...Suffrage....
4
Republicans are following Putin's orders to destroy America from within.
5
Amen, Brother!
3
My bumper sticker is the Republican (fascist) party's motto: "Just Pretend It's All OK."
2
I always find Dr. Krugman's analyses to be spot on. I would love to read his ideas on rectifying wealth inequality. Most of the Dems talk about taxes but they are such a political heavy lift I don't see Congress with anywhere near the courage to raise taxes. i feel there must be ways to distribute wealth more equally rather then rely on re-distribution.
2
Wealth is not "distributed" like gruel in a soup line. Wealth is created by developing and delivering goods and service to others in an organzed fashion, at a price others are willing to pay, which is at least higher than the cost of producion / delivery.
Some people are better at the organizing / developing part and they tend to be the ones that accumulate wealth. Most prefer a 9 to 5 routine, and their rewards are consistent with their contribution to the cooperative endeavor.
Socialist seek to put politicians in charge of "distributing" wealth, which they can only do by politicizing outcomes with themselves as the arbiters. Handing out free stuff to supporters (but paid for by taxes on others) is not new, and inevitably it leads to corruption and violence. Why go down that path again to see if this time will be different?
That's how one gets a Mao, a Castro, a Stalin and a Chavez. Oddly, all those murderous thugs spoke relentlessly about "equality." But like the animals on the farm, some politicians are forever more equal than others.
It’s the Republican “attack machine” and all the money it has to dominate the conversation...stupid. Americans need to put heir heads down and just push on, work through the pain and distractions and bells, whistles and sirens of the sound of all that money burning.
1
I like the word Fascist and that's what I am going to call Donald Trump. They elected a Fascist and the sooner they admit it the better off we all will be. If they defend him then they too are Fascist, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham!!!
3
So why not call them facists and be done with it?
5
Fascism must be called out whenever shows its face.
7
In France we have free health insurance for all since 1949. Free education from kindergarten 3 year old up to doctorate in university. 5 weeks paid vacation for every worker annually . 35 hour work week for every worker.
6 month fully paid maternity leave.
Still Bernard Arnaud is worth 100 billion $ .
What would be better if Americans stopped cheating and invading the European market without paying any taxes with all their biggest corporations fiscally sitting in Europe and not in the USA .
Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Starbucks, Netflix and others. The American fiscal fraud in Europe amounts to 20 % : equivalent to the deficit of the EU budget annually .
If Americans were conducting honest business in Europe, paying taxes like everybody else, the EU budget would be balanced and European workers would have a much better life and less unemployment.
4
Dr. Krugman,
While I am solidly in the Democratic camp, your column is more than a bit disingenuous.
The type of wealth redistribution discussed by Sanders and Warren is clearly a form of socialism however you want to label it. The wealthy already pay a hugely disproportionate share of the taxes in this country, and taxing that more is not only counter-productive but simply not fair.
Instead, the obvious solution (not involving taxation) is to raise the minimum wage. End of story. Unfortunately, policy wonks don't like it because it takes away all of the fun of sounding erudite and complicated.
1
Fascism must be called out every time it shows its ugly face.
2
“Liberal” used to be the damning epithet Republicans used to scare people, until they so overused it that it lost its power. So they moved on to “Socialist.” But even this is losing its shock value, as young people embrace social democracy and an expanded safety net.
Guess their only recourse now is to switch to “Communist” to see if that is sufficiently frightening.
2020–every vote counts!
4
"..Donald Trump, who was installed in office with Russian help..." - clearly the f-word - which means fake news. And you beg me to take you seriously.
1
Socialism never meant government ownership of means of production. That is communism. Socialism is allowing the people to allocate the money raised by taxation for the benefit of all, typically negotiated by democratically elected representatives.
6
Dr. Krugman writes:
"One might even argue that the G.O.P. stands out among the West’s white nationalist parties for its exceptional willingness to crash right through the guardrails of democracy. "
That's exactly what the GOP in the Oregon Senate did recently when they decamped to points unknown (Idaho?) to deprive the supermajority of Democrats of the quorum needed to pass climate-change legislation.
One senator went so far as to imply that he'd leave widows and orphans behind should Oregon law enforcement agents obey the governor's call to round up the insurrectionists and return them to the state capitol.
To make matters worse, the incident brought the white nationalists out of the woodwork to mount a show of paramilitary force in defense of the GOP members of the Oregon senate who betrayed our democracy by refusing to perform the duties of the offices to which they were elected.
Dirty tricks such as this are reminiscent of the actions of the brown shirts in Weimar Berlin as they went about the dirty business of killing democracy in Germany.
5
@Alan Coogan
I think they learned that trick from democrats in Wisconsin a few years back.
Internet leftists have pointed out that Trump is our first “illiberal” President philosophically - using the philosophical understanding of the word “liberal.”
I believe, in his heart, Trump is a fascist. The only check on him is that his cabinet and his government is composed of liberals. And in that way, Dr. Kruggman is right - the GOP remains a liberal party just as the US remains a liberal democracy, but they’ve allowed a fascist to lead them, and there are more fascists lurking in their ranks. They are far more than the secret communists supposedly lurking among Democrats, which are a deranged GOP fantasy (or, more likely, a dangerously cynical tactic used by the GOP to gin up support for their anti-worker policies)
Just like Elizabeth Warren, I remain a liberal capitalist to my bones - but appeals to compromise and playing toward the center are dangerous when the right is (often deliberately) pushing the limits of acceptable discourse towards the extremes. This is no time to seek compromise with cynical and uncompromising opponents. The time is now to fight for the soul of America, to press for a new conception of what it means to be American and what it means to live in a truly just and free society, one where playing by the rules gives everybody a truly fair chance, and the benefits of our successes are not concentrated at the top of the social pyramid, but shared by all Americans!
WARREN 2020
4
Paul Krugman illuminates the choice Americans face. We are, as he says, not helped by a media which identifies outright lies but otherwise treats Trump's pronouncements at face value, e.g., Trump will expel a physically impossible "million" illegal immigrants.
By imitating Mussolini In his conflation of the state with himself and in glorifying his administration Trump is headed toward Fascism and so are his supporters, evangelicals especially, who make a graven image of the President.
Krugman is also quite right to note that neither Bernie nor AOC advocate state ownership of the means of production, the measure which brought down the British Labor Party, a Fabian Socialist (as opposed to Marxist inspired) party. Eventually, these enterprises were privatized.
Democratic Socialists/Social Democrats (a distinction without a difference) no longer want state run productive enterprises; public utllities like the TVA are another matter. It is striking that the first, highly successful Spanish Socialist Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez sold off or closed red ink drenched state owned industries established by Franco's crazy quilt dictatorship. In civil liberty respecting Costa Rica, in the early 1980s a social democratic president sold off money losing enterprises set up by an earlier Social Democrat president.
As a child of the Depression, I recognize social democrats like Sanders and AOC as heirs of FDR, also accused of being a commie by ignorant wing nuts of his day.
3
Remember when Republicans claimed Democrats were "soft on Communism"? Now they've got a new mantra...
1
The Republican party has, for many years, perfected the use of lying propoganda in order to get the power that they have. They figured out forty years ago or so how to do that and they have the money (read FOX news) to do it. Not only have they tarred the word socialism (or democratic socialism) but other terms. (remember the word "liberal"?).
This country is, as most of us know, not a democracy but an oligarchy of the rich. As Dylan said: "Money doesn't talk, it swears!"
3
The totalitarian so-called ”socialist” republics have sullied the word forever. The Democratic nominee will be attacked mercilessly with fact-free verbal firebombs. There will be no space for nuanced discussion of the meaning of the words “socialism” or “reparations” with the people in the swing states who have not been paying attention, and who will decide the next election. Explain what government programs or regulations you propose without those words, i.e. without providing free firebombs for the Republicans to throw.
1
I'm sure Democrats have had opportunities in the past to fix the gerrymandering problem and the electorial college problem.
At Mussolini's rallies during his rise, the press would be kept in a pen to the side of the stage where they were pointed to and mocked and greeted by the crowd with catcalls and boos (before the free press was outlawed completely). What does that remind us of?
5
"Will we keep seeing headlines that repeat false claims (“Trump Says Democrats Will Ban Hamburgers”), with the information that the claim is false buried deep inside the article? Will we get coverage of actual policy proposals, as opposed to horse-race analysis that only asks how those proposals seem to be playing?"
Since fascism does imply corporate ownership of government and media, I believe we will continue to get the false equivalence that has given us t rump and his republican/fascist party; along with chaos and cruelty never seen before in a viable working Nation.
It has been clearly evident to me for many, many years that the republican party, at the behest of their corporate masters, has been edging us ever closer to full blown fascism.
We were given somewhat of a reprieve when t rump was dumped into the White House, because even the busiest citizen and most cynical reporter can see what evil is at the heart of their policies. Remember, there would not be this chaos at the border if Boehner had allowed that immigration bill to see the light of day back in '13.
So, Prof, urge your colleagues in the 4th Estate to rouse themselves from their corporate stupor and do their jobs of informing the electorate.
Remember that in a fascist state reporters are generally out of work. And in prison.
2
Krugman would have one believe that the Republican Party being “to the right of” UKIP, etc, needs be suggests that it must be classified similarly across every ideological position. Of course, a one-dimensional spectrum poorly captures a party’s stance on a topic-by-topic basis; that much should be clear to anyone, including the authors of the Op-Ed Krugman cites:
“The Republican platform does not include the same bigoted policies, and its score is pushed to the right because of its emphasis on traditional morality and a ‘national way of life.’”
Perhaps this, or the vagaries of “nativist populism”, truly does suggest a hidden white nationalist undercurrent, and that if we had much sense “we’d classify them as white nationalist extremists.” If so, Krugman ought employ much better than a what amounts to a misrepresentation of work done by his own colleagues to convince us – as a longtime reader, I know he’s capable of much better.
The Trump-Putin coalition has given the media plenty of motivation to improve its coverage of politics, both in America and abroad.
However, for decades our corporate news media focused most of their attention and resources on surviving by converting themselves into entertainment shows. Conducting a three-ring circus, though, requires entirely different skills from investigating and unfrocking a church full of pedophiles.
It has been many years since most of the major papers, magazines and networks have been managed and staffed by respected journalists with real street experience and real editorial savvy. We no longer have Walter Cronkites and Ben Bradlees in key positions of power.
It seems very doubtful that even if they commit to opposing White-Wing tyranny, America’s corporate media still have the professional skills and experience to penetrate Republicans’ Big Lies.
2
I have visited Denmark several times over the years-Tivoli Garden is less and less a delight but nice anyway. Only if you have never been there (AOC comes to mind) would you see Denmark as the shining socialist city on the hill.
1
Putin and his sidekick trump may have revealed an important tell in their little buddy get together. Putin said Liberalism has failed, and tRump nodded in agreement. That my friends is Putin’s plan, to shift to authoritarianism. Hope all the minions will be happy giving up their Liberty.
4
Hickenlooper called Medicare "socialist" (whether it's "for all" or not is not the qualifier, nor the important point about it). A Democrat called Medicare "socialist". Frank Luntz has won.
Republican liars with mendacious intentions have won. SCOTUS has endorsed gerrymandering and unlimited dark money in elections and politics generally.
It will take a revolution to reverse now-deeply-entrenched, anti-democratic, oligarchic, plutocratic -- yes, proto-fascist -- minority rule.
2
The organization Krugman is writing in is part of the problem. Today, his collegue David Brooks is begging the Democrats to appeal to "moderate" Republicans. I say take that complain to your own party leaders. We have had enough of being the party of Republican lite. Clintons and your acolytes, it is time to go home and stay there.
2
The former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Margaret Thatcher, famously claimed that "There is no such thing as society." What she really objected to was trying to improve "society" for the benefit of the majority - something which is also anathema to American Republicans. And for some reason politicians can get elected by the have-nots by saying that taxing the obscenely wealthy contravenes the American ethic (which to my knowledge has never been defined, except perhaps by Woody Guthrie, who sang "This land is your land, this land is my land"... Native Americans may not agree).
What's in a name? There is no dishonor in being a democrat, nor in being a republican (Plato said it way, way back) but beware - if you put a capital letter up front you can stir up a hornets' nest. The words have more or less replaced political argument - Trump, together with friends and enemies alike, tweets more than that "rockin' robin" ever did, while failing to actually say very much. (Young folks can google "rockin' robin").
What many Democrats actually want is, I presume, a "society" where the guys (hardly any gals are involved) with the possessions and the power will be made to move over and make a little space for the less fortunate. While the Republicans want the latter to bow their heads and touch their forelocks ...
2
Wealthcare is socialism at its best. Republicans certainly seem to have no problem subsidizing every American oligarch in the country. A simple case of the pot calling the kettle black. Very disingenuous folks they are.
2
My first vote was for Barry Goldwater and I was a Republican for a long time thereafter. No more. Bush the lesser cured me of that affliction. The Republican party today is as corrupt as Mitch McConnell is vile. Goldwater warned Republicans about the direction Republicans were headed with this quote:
“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.”
― Barry Goldwater
Seems that they have fully realized that potential, and much much more.
3
I call myself an Independent although I clearly support many of the Democratic policies. I voted for Charlie Baker my Republican governor. If one was to search the Republican soul and honestly weed out the bigot and racist among them, the loud and boisterous voices would fade back to where they have always hidden. Trump has unleashed the ugliest tendencies of those haters and bigots, given them voice while the rest of us see them as a new wave of political power. The Republicans have shamelessly supported or remained silent
as the price of power. The debate yesterday should give the majority of us promise that our country has not turned into the "United States of Hungary". We've fought too many battles to protect our imperfect democracy, to give it away to a pathetic possibly pathological ego driven man who loves the idea that POTUS is perhaps the most powerful position in the world.
He has changed the sign on Pennsylvania Ave. of the White House to Trump House. That sign as with others of his properties will soon become irrelevant and will be taken down. Our constitutional form of government is at stake here.
3
I'm socially conservative, but I'm OK with calling the current administration "fascist". Civility is nice, but when it's used to downplay inconvenient political problems, it just gets in the way. Call it as it is. If the shoe fits...
1
Pretty simple. Since Reagan the R. Party has been much farther to the right than the dems have been to the left. In Europe, Bernie would be a mainstream liberal. With Trump and those in Congress who support him currently designates us as a proto-fascist state. To make a case for a “socialist” scare is disingenuous and simply factually false.
1
Leftist Democrats would do their party a big favor by retiring the phrase "democratic socialist" and adopting the European phrase "social democrat." The Soviet Union ruined the term "socialist," when they characterizes their system by that name ("Union of Soviet Socialist Republics") and allowed it to slide into fascism. Trump, the GOP, and Fox News will still label the Democrats as socialists but at least the Democrats will be able to show that label to be entirely inappropriate.
1
Far worse than the pervasive dismantling of democracy is the willed indifference to human suffering. We have become a rogue nation committed by policy to kidnapping children and torturing them. Is there any other nation on Earth doing anything close to what we've been for the past two years? I can't think of one.
1
In another remarkably unselfaware piece of nonsense, Paul Krugman asserts the following:"... imagine the media firestorm, the screams about lost civility, we’d experience if any prominent Democrat described Republicans as a party of fascists..."
Paul then proceeds in the next five to six paragraphs to describe Republicans as a party of fascists.
But there isn't going to be a "media firestorm" because outside of his narrow readership, he's seen as a crank zealot, with no ability to convince anyone that wasn't already convinced about his angry, partisian political views.
He's sort of amusing to those who disagree with him, but mostly in a patronizing manner in which one feels sorry for somone who presents themselves as so narrow and bitter. It's sad, yet not worthy of a firestorm, just a mild shrug.
1
Back when everybody was arguing abut Obamacare, didn't you hear all health insurance companies whispering "Yay socialism!"
Here is a riddle that perhaps you can unpack: why did a large number of people in "middle America" first vote for Obama and then vote for Trump?
1
Democrats DO call all republicans Fascists and Nazis. They also want to extinguish those voices of those who disagree with the party's agenda as a basket of deplorables(Mrs. Clinton) or people who should not live in New York State( Andrew Cuomo) or those who cling to their guns and religion( President Obama).
I know there are just as many sweeping generalization from the Republican party, but this editorial is mainly about the Republican stance as written in an op-ed piece that used information from the far right parties in Europe and Stated that those who adhere to traditional family values are to be considered out ot the mainstream.
1
Sad, but true. Stay after 'em.
The democrats just need to ask one question:”Are you better off than you were 4 years ago?”
1
Even more evidence as to why conservatives are anti-education. Critical thinking can be a threat to your ideology. Knowing what words actually mean, being able to distinguish propaganda from the truth, that's not useful when you have an agenda that runs on emotion rather than rationality.
Not to mention that one of the tenets of fascism is to attack the truth until no one can agree on what the truth is.
Yep, keep them people dumb - they are much easier to manipulate then.
3
The heart of the matter, as Mr. Krugman points out, is the media's complicity in perpetuating falsehoods and distorted facts. We would not have this tremendous rift in political parties without the media's 24/7 spotlighting of Trump to the point where his base have bought into lies, hate, and misogyny because it feeds their basest instincts; bashing immigrants is far simpler and more entertaining to them than facing the realities of climate change, lack of access to affordable health care, and horribly inflated college costs. The media must stop giving Trump so much coverage and devote far more time to how Americans can overcome the greatest obstacles facing them without the help of those politicians who clearly disdain them.
2
well, does your accurate analysis of today's republican party move you, at all, to recognize that it's past time for the democrats to "fight fire with fire"?
clinton and obama essentially refused to fight, especially with respect to the appointment of judges and justices--moving the judiciary further to the right.
for all those scholars, pundits, etc., who say let's remain "proper"--ie, don't consider adding justices to the supreme court if given the opportunity--our response is "get real and fight back".
2
As has been mentioned frequently in the comment section below and in some articles, I think it is worth reiterating that Democrats this election, need to stand up for themselves and for the truth.
Big corporations have ruined the integrity of the country and need to have serious limits imposed on them with regard to how much they can bulldoze over customers and how much damage they can do to the environment.
They need to be held more accountable for the waste they produce by having them pay for the clean-up and by having them package items in ways that are not harmful to the environment by, for example, limiting their use and plastics.
And Democrats need to educate those who don't understand the difference between socialism and fascism so they understand how to recognize the lies being thrown at them.
If we only tell the truth about the state of affairs in the White House, about Big Pharma, about monopolies, and most especially, about what the country and the world need in order to be able to sustain a livable planet, I think we'll be ahead of the game.
3
The United States was brainwashed in the 1950's against government program that might have even slight overtones of "socialism", no matter how helpful these programs would be to the people. Communism was equated with socialism by groups like the AMA who used "Red Scare" tactics to suppress any possibility of a single payer health plan. Now we have Donald Trump calling Democrats socialists and Bernie Sanders a communist.
In reality the happiest countries in the world with strong economies and strong social safety nets are the Democratic Socialist countries of Scandinavia. The United States is currently a corporate-dominated state where democracy has been subverted for the benefit of the super-wealthy by the Republican Party. They steal from the poor to stuff their pockets while people are dying in the streets of America for lack of health care. We can only hope the younger generations can move this country toward democratic socialism by any name. It is not a question of right or left, it is question of restoring our democracy and returning human decency to government.
5
I agree with almost everything Paul Krugman writes, and I learn a great deal from his insights. But I think there is a flaw in this article. It's the idea that the media reports as a herd. Just compare the Times with the Wall Street Journal, and see how the difference in values between these two papers shapes their different perspectives. The trouble is not that the media all follow the same talking points. The problem is that the right in America (and in Britain, too) has developed a hyper-partisan media which is much happier to circulate convenient lies than report uncomfortable facts. The erosion of democracy which we are now witnessing has been made possible by a right wing media which refuses to bear witness to it.
3
Thank you once again, Mr. Krugman, for expounding a rational view of where the major American parties actually are, as opposed to where they say they are. The rightward drift of the GOP, at least since Reagan, coupled with their attack on democracy in the form of voter suppression and extreme gerrymandering, to say nothing of blatant catering to the elites and tax cuts that promote ever more income inequality, and we now have a major party that I no longer even recognize. The GOP needs to be called out, exposed for the fraud that they have become, and soundly defeated in 2020. We have one tool left, the vote. We must use it like our way of life depends upon it, because it does.
3
White America is devolving. The ancient Egyptians and Mayans were smarter than us in a lot of ways. We haven't learned or changed much since we attempted to ethnically destroy the Native Americans who settled here thousands of years before the European migration.
In an address to West Point military graduates, US Vice President Mike Pence told them they will one day fight for America. “It’s a virtual certainty,” said Pence who was swelling with pride as he spoke, rather than lamenting.
Well, at least, he is being candid. The United States is a warmongering nation, there is no doubt about it. As several historical studies attest, out of the 243 years since its formation as a modern state, the US has been at war during every decade, sometimes in multiple simultaneous wars.
Or put another way, about 95 per cent of its historical existence the US has been involved in waging wars, sometimes covertly or by proxy. Since the Second World War alone, the US has been involved in up to 60 wars or covert conflicts, inflicting a civilian death toll estimated at 20 million. Arguably, there is not another nation, past or present, with such a record of belligerence.
4
As PK notes, the media plays a central role.
We used to worry about state-controlled media. We should worry now about media-controlled state,
2
Incredible move to the right in the last 63 years. The right rings the sirens of socialism, taxes, and immigration; devoting incredible money to the military industrial complex. All this instead of investing in its greatest asset: human beings. This asset grows through education, infrastructure, health care, and safety.
1956 Republican Platform
1. Provide federal assistance to low income communities
2. Protect Social Security
3. Provide Asylum for refugees
4. Extend Minimum Wage
5. Improve unemployment benefit system so it covers more people
6. Strengthen labor laws so workers can easily join a union
7. Assure equal pay for equal work regardless of sex
4
The Republicans have done nothing really for the middle- and working-class--except an unnecessary big tax cut for the rich and powerful, which has only raised the deficit sky high and mortgaged our children's future, So they will do the only thing they can, which is attack the Democrats using labels such as "socialism" and engage in vicious personal attacks (the lowest form of argument). Keep the focus off how much the rich have gained and the middle-class has lost.
So the Democrats are going to have to really educate the citizenry, act like the party of opposition (which they have done very poorly), and put Trump and the Republicans on the defensive (which should be very easy given what the Republicans have not done for anyone but the rich and powerful).
Let Americans know the military, the VA, post office, and national parks are government run programs, and we already have government support for social and public services such as: Social Security and Medicare; minimum wage and child labor laws; the GI Bill; agricultural and energy subsidies; and the government regulates banking and environmental pollution. Want to end it?
What would happen to most Americans if we ended these social democracy programs--although some Republicans and their big donors have tried and will keep trying.
What advanced countries need is a balance between privatist and public activities, and we can do better--health care, drug prices, pre-school--better balanced capitalism for all.
2
The democratic candidate is not even out of the gate yet and the tv adds have started. The one about how socialistic Medicare for all will take away your favorite doctor and make you wait months for medical procedures. Then there is David Brooks today stating how these “socialistic” candidates are hurting the democratic platform. It’s going to be an election of lies from the one side and the difficult job of a democratic candidate to convince moderates that there is a better way to run this country.
4
I am a long time Bernie fan, from way before 2016, but the pedant in me is still freaked out by his still calling himself a socialist. I'd love to have a conversation with him about this (Bernie, if you are reading...).
As you succinctly point out, the term socialism refers to an economic system where the government (or other collective entity) owns the means of production. Bernie says he supports small business, admires the market economies of Scandinavia (they call themselves social democracies), and loves FDR, who has aptly been described as having saved capitalism in the U.S. Bernie is a social democrat. (I also like the term "social market" for a system of a private market regulated for the well being of all.) While socialists support unions, equality, universal healthcare, etc., so do progressives who call themselves capitalists- like Elizabeth Warren. I'd love to hear Bernie tell me how his policies are more socialistic than Warren's.
Probably the answer to his self-labeling is more personal history and psychology. But why brand yourself with something that can only lose you support, especially since it is not accurate?
6
The Republicans since Reagan have attempted to gain control over the government by pandering to the wealthy with large tax cuts and deregulation. They want the wealthy corporations and individuals to control the government by means of their wealth. This control by the wealthy is called an oligarchy, not a democracy. Maybe we should call their party the Oligarchs.
Trump lied his way in to office by promising he would bring jobs back for the workers. Those workers - his base - are still not working at the jobs Trump never brought back.
My question for his base is "how are you doing now without your old jobs?" The corporatists are doing just GREAT. They are the ones who took your jobs away for their profit.
7
While you're at it, encourage the media to describe Supreme Court justices as "Republican-appointed" or "Democrat-appointed", which are strictly factual adjectives. There is nothing "conservative" about justices who frequently overturn both precedent and legislation, which both the Rhenquist and Roberts courts have done. They would most accurately be described as "reactionary," but I realize that's a bridge too far for the media. So I encourage the use of factual terms. Yes, it does highlight the political nature of the Court, but does anyone (especially after Bush v. Gore) believe the Court is not political? Certainly the Republicans don't since they've spent so much time making it so.
5
If we could abolish dark money (fat chance!), we could force elected politicians and candidates to wear major sponsor badges on capes when appearing in public or on televised proceedings.
This comes from an old SF story from the 50's where the government was so corporatized that reps and senators were from large corps, not districts or states. We're getting there.
4
Thank you Paul Krugman for an excellent overview of "democratic socialism". And by the way, all the leading countries in the world ( Germany, Sweden, Finland......many others) have been implementing various forms of democratic socialism successfully for decades. The U.S. could tweak our own version and benefit greatly as we move forward.
7
There are 2 reasons the Republican Party has drifted into fascist territory...
#1, they do not represent the mainstream views of most Americans, which makes them the minority party which, in turn, makes them terrified of losing their position of wealth, white privilege and power.
#2, the progressive/liberal/Democratic coalition of voters became complacent in the aftermath of the Obama administration, and failed to vote in numbers that reflected their majority position.
Combine these 2 factors and you have a Republican Party that finds its most reliable, solid voting block farther and farther to the right, and that does not fear the progressive majority, because they don't vote as a majority.
Once a minority party attains power it cannot be a surprise that they begin to employ fascist tactics to hold onto that power. If they do not, and simply begin to deploy minority-view policies, their defeat comes just as simply; they're voted out. The 2018 mid-terms demonstrated this clearly, and the subsequent ratcheting up of tactics to suppress the progressive electorate are the deliberate result. Republicans' only hope of holding onto power and privilege is to use it in every way possible to undermine the very institutions that would, under normal circumstances, relegate them to true minority status.
This is the dysfunction we've allowed to evolve. The solution is no more complicated than the problem: Vote. When the majority votes as a majority, the balance of power is restored.
9
There’s the political spectrum, but politicizing the judiciary, rigging elections, supressing the media and rewarding cronies can happen on the left or the right. These actions can be supported by any gruop in power and can be conceived as a vertical axis that starts at zero and moves away from democracy. This is the corruption axis.
2
Mr. Krugman writes that the candidates want a private-sector-driven economy. What is one of the largest businesses in the country? It's healthcare. Medicare for all is one of their themes. That would put that industry under the absolute control of the government. That means the government would control who gets what, where it is provided, and how much is Allocated. Another major industry is education. Some candidates talk about higher education being free. Somebody has to pay the teachers, the books, the buildings etc. That leaves us with less in our paycheck after the taxes. Paying for the books also means that you control what's in the books. It dictates where the student goes to get the education and who is eligible for education after college. Free day care is also on their agenda. That would mean the government would define what the program provides and who provides it. Nothing is free. Someone has to pay the bill and that's us unless they are just going to turn on the printing machines. As far as Russia helping Trump get elected, how did they convince all of the Hillary voters to change their vote to Trump. They are accused of hacking into the DNC. What was revealed was they were surprising Bernie's campaign as he kept wining primaries which made the transparent party transparent. There is one analyzer of her loss who gave another opinion, Obama. He said she lost to Trump for the same reason she lost to him. She ran a soulless campaign. No mention of the Russians
1
@Ron, Watch if Democrats somehow win, they make excuses why it can't be done. Oh, and before I forget, there is a monthly fee to cover the 20% that Medicare doesn't cover.
A jumble of illogic. Medicare for all would not put everything in the medical industry under government control. Please study actual not partisan studies of European healthcare systems.
3
How does one play with one like Trump? Those running for the president in the Democratic primary have been by and large refreshing in terms of behavior, ideas, goals and criticism of not simply the president, but policies to shun and policies to claim. Running one's campaign against the artful and clumsy dodger in itself will be tough: who's on first and the tweeting and noise and intense manufacturing of red hats causing shortages in red dye and baseball caps. And truth. Of course definitions of socialism and conservatives are askew. Sloganeering and tweeting are the new norm. Throw in no-shame lying about everything from wall building to economic well-being to trade stats and all that be assured at this point in time will be that the election will be more like the weather. Hurricane or tornado? Blizzards or balmy days? Sun out? Rain forecast. We have a society in need of a different leader. Socialism has been around since dairy and grain coops, insurance, and our country has had to adjust the Constitution to allow all to vote to continue the notion of democracy. Nothing can be taken for granted. Thank god for Alexander Hamilton and John Marshall. Read and pay attention voters! There is a lot at stake.
1
What the democratic candidates need to do is EDUCATE, EDUCATE, EDUCATE. Explain over and over what a balanced, fair capitalism looks like; that it means more than sea level rise or bad weather when they say climate change is existential (e.g. mass starvation, migration etc.); the broad steps of achieving universal health care, etc etc. Perhaps the DNC should put up a whole series of educational ads, stating in clear language our vision, rather than relying on worn sound bites. We need a sustained campaign of educating the public to counter the Republican propaganda machine.
12
Yes, "a lot will depend on how the news media handle dishonest attacks," but a lot will also depend on how much ammunition the Democrats give them. Sanders is leaning into the word and it will be VERY hard for to counter charges of socialism if he is the nominee. Yes, Republicans will "routinely describe" any Democratic nominee as a "Socialist," but if that happens to be true, as it is for Sanders (but not, say Warren, Biden, Harris or Buttigieg.)
Sander's socialism is NOT just marketing. When you say such things you sound like the people who told themselves W. was secretly more moderate then he said. Take him at his word, there is abundant reason to believe it. His proposals may mostly seem safely in the realm of liberal social democracy, but he always leaves the door open.
It is useful to remember that the category of liberal thought the Europeans call Social Democracy, and we used to call "FDR liberalism," "New Deal liberalism," "Labor liberalism" or "the Welfare State," is the product of the rich dialectic between Liberals and Conservatives trying to preempt socialist critiques and Democratic Socialists trying to "prime the pump" for "creeping socialism." But while they often made common cause specific general reforms, the different aims can result in critical distinctions on the program details. (As reflected today in the differences between (New Dealer) Elizabeth Warren's plans and those of (Democratic Socialist) Bernie Sanders.
2
Bernie Sanders deftly dodged the question about why California, Vermont and New York failed to implement their own Medicare For All systems. He dodged that question TWICE.
Democrats going off and ignoring the realities of where they live. That socialist tag will be all that’s needed for a Republican victory. It will be an easy communication message. Add that with some of the personalities and we would be looking at another loss “moral victory” in the 2020 election.
Those Euro countries have private insurance as an element of their health care. Dems are preaching abolishing private insurance. That will win over the people employed in the burbs.
From a budget perspective, the EU does not accept and integrate as many low skilled immigrants and migrants as the US. They also don’t have the military obligations we do. And before you dismiss this thought, ask yourself how much we spend on salaries and benefits vs. the conscripted soldier in China and Russia. Also, challenge yourself on the value of having s credible deterrent.
Moderates just got the deal done for the border. Well done. Democrats, as a whole, have to look in the mirror and see how far left they have wandered.
I wonder if Trump winning in 2020 will push them further left, or will they see the errors in their ways?
Trump winning in 2020 will validate his approach to governance. It will set the stage for a Putin like Autocrat with a compliant rubber stamp Republican Party to turn us into a better funded Russia like country.
Devastating to the future of humanity.
Un American, of course its the Democrats.
Putting Party ahead of country, just for the next election (they have never gotten over the 2016 election) they created our immigration crisis and now bend over backwards to avoid the guilt.
They are angry and ununified, a group of single issue groupies who do not agree with each other as to how important each single issue is. They want everything for free. No indication they know how to pay for any of it.
1
Of course Warren et al have actually put out very detailed plans on how they want to pay for stuff, and actually border crossings have more than tripled since we were stupid enough to elect Trump, but hey, what’re facts in the face of sneering?
Meanwhile back at the Earth, Trump’s also added $2 trillion to the debt, whole more than doubling the annual deficit. I guess that’s pretty minor, given the $5 trill or so Republicans blew on Iraq and Afghanistan without the slightest interest in budgeting it. And anyway, wait’ll the bills these clowns are running up on global warming start coming due.
Oh, and this just in, Sam Spade: the guy who invented you, Dashiell Hammett, was an out-and-out commie. Oops, nice detectin’.
Yes it’s true — we are still having a hard time accepting the 2016 election because it was tainted by a foreign government’s interference. That’s not something you should take lightly, either. I also cannot “get over” that Trump didn’t recognize how blatantly illegal it was for him to accept their help. Come on now. Nobody should “get over” theft. Justice ought to be served. Impeach!!
The most frightening cemented power of the Republican Party resides in the United States Supreme Court. Search no further for right wing activists for the long term, than those who wear the robes of justice.
7
Even theoretically "Liberal" or "progressive" presidents, state & federal administrations actually promoted conservatism in terms of religious fundamentalism, and in many cases tactically mixed it with racism (read, white supremacy). Those two always accompany crony capitalism, mainly since Reagan era.
Public education also got polluted by underlying religious fundamentalism and racism, of course, more openly in Red states. One can just look around and see so many roadside billboards telling fairy-tales about God/Jesus/Christianity and such "conservative" ideas. Then compare how many you can find to denounce such myths or telling scientific truth about such issues. Imagine how so many people across the country, mainly in red "conservative" states, would react if someone put a big billboard denouncing God/Religion/White Supremacy or such "conservative" issues.
It seems that time has come for those "liberals" to conclude that time to compromise or accommodate "conservatives" are not working. It actually never worked for long. Sometime ago, one Op-Ed in The Times concluded USA under Trump is very close to 2nd civil-war- https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/02/opinion/the-american-civil-war-part-ii.html.
In fact, I think we reached to this state as reconstruction after civil war was totally disrupted and Jim Crow era set in. Now the "moderates" need to pick up a side based on their core values and education, if they want to be on the right side of history.
7
As far as I am concerned the Republican Party, has become far rightwing representing only wealth and the corporations that wealth owns. They use social issues such as religion, abortion, guns and fear to get the votes they need from the people who only watch Fox News, have less education, live in the hollowed out post industrial areas of the country or live in the states who are heavily dependent on the federal government for funding all of which are red states.
Republicans will do anything to hang on to that power even if it means resorting to all sorts of corruption when it comes to voting and the right to vote. They know that the more extreme they become the smaller the voting pool is for them so they have to use other means to prevent people from voting particularly if they they are not white.
The Democratic Party is not socialist, I have never heard any of them call for public ownership of private industry. Democrats believe in a social safety net which most Americans believe in too. The minority in this country, the religious right and their white nationalist compatriots, they are the ones who want to force their beliefs onto the rest of us by rigging the system. That is what we have to fear, a ‘thoughtcracy’ as well as theocracy.
13
Medicare for all is Socialism good sir. By definition taking over a huge part of our economy is socialism. Single payer is socialism. And the guarantee Trump gets to replace RGB, Breyer and Sotomayor (who goes down in history as the least qualified, most improper justice is modern SCOTUS jurisprudence.
@EWG
Not so. This is not a standard definition of socialism, which is support for a society where wealth and the means of production are not held in private hands.
Single payer is government provision of a public service (specifically, health insurance coverage); a function with a long history and deep philosophical roots in liberalism, conservatism, and even fascism (or "nationalism," as we are rebranding it). Socialists (and fearful right-wingers) have long seen both single payer health insurance (or, better, public health care as in the UK) as a kind of "gateway drug" to socialism, but it has always had its advocates among liberals and conservatives on the grounds of efficiency and/or humanity--indeed some liberal and conservative calls for such provision pre-date the advent of socialism and its critique of liberal market economies.
It is fair to say that publicly provided health insurance is not inconsistent with socialism, but it also isn't inconsistent with free market liberal democracies either.
4
Not to hurt Mr. Krugman's feelings but the masses of the American people don't read his editorials. The substance of what he says is right. The question is how do we educate the American people that they have been hoodwinked into believing much of the misrepresentations of the GOP about socialism. It is a very deep and enduring problem that harkens back to the days of the McCarthy era of red-baiting and fear mongering about both socialism and communism. The GOP rhetoric about the untied, unregulated free markets as savior of us all is the real enemy of the American people has to be exposed for what it really is; a cover for the 1% to continue to rip-off the vast majority of us all.
9
A little history lesson for you about the "red baiting" Joe Mcarthy. He died in 1957.
Thus McCarty was not alive in the mid-sixties when the Socialists in China - wearing Mao suits and preaching "equality" - decided to deliberately murder tens of million of their political enemies. They "knew better" than those "uneducated" deplorables so they killed them to get them out of the way so as to better implement their brilliant and progressive "plan."
Socialism has its own actual history.
Nothing Joe McCarthy ever did or said is anywhere close to the horrific actual outcomes perpetrated in places where the thoroughly disgraced ideas of Socialism have already been implemented.
The Democrats are not socialists although some of their policies, including consideration or Medicare-for-all and over-enthusiasm for immigration, are too far to the left for my liking.
The GOP, however, is a radical rightist party. They would have no problem with destroying democracy in America. Curious that a lot of people don't see that.
The Democrats are less poisonous at this time, the lesser of two evils.
8
When the Republican Party welcomed white southern Democrats beginning in the late 1960s, they were appealing to white nationalists. That's what white southern Democrats, taken as a group, were. The white part was especially played up, but the Dixie part was always prominent, too. To the extent that they saw themselves as American patriots in the broader sense, it was that they wanted to make all of America like Dixie. And leaving a liberalizing Democratic Party and joining a Republican Party that was open to moving far to the right has turned out to be the best hope that these white nationalists have had. In the Democratic Party, they increasingly were an embarrassment. In the Republican Party, they were an excuse for non-southern Whites to embrace their most extreme fears and prejudices. The process has gone much farther among Republican politicians than among registered voters, many of whom are not white nationalists by any stretch. But peer pressure seems to be making it hard for the politicians not to at least go through the motions of issuing dog whistles, and after a while habit becomes conviction.
9
Re. the featured photograph:
I understand that commenting on someone's looks is not usually appropriate, but if I encountered a group of men who looked like that, walking down the street in any city in America including my own, I would turn the corner and leave the area if I could.
I find them terrifying just to look at.
6
Labels, labels, labels. Precisely. If the Dems become influenced by labels they will be fighting the last war. The winning candidate must stick to his/her guns and scream the message from the rooftops: Equality, Inclusion, Fairness, Justice, Healthcare, Peace. And graphically highlight the evils of billionaire lobbyists, tax inequity, the military-industrial complex's love of foreign wars, ubiquitous guns, politicians' greed and everything else that most Americans are disgusted with.
9
Yep. It’s a bit discouraging to see the liberal-to-Left folks buy into the nonsense about socialism, especially since Trump et al use socialism, liberalism, leftism, progressivism and communism as synonyms.
To the GOP it really doesn’t matter, as it’s just a matter of painting the nursery wall with their diaper’s contents.
2
Sounds like you advocate replacing labels with slogans. That should prove nuanced and useful, right?
America's democracy is a fading dream, only a memory. After a long struggle, the dark forces of white nationalism are ascendant. Their victory was achieved not through violent overthrow or an overt referendum, but through insidious means, under color of law. They gained the upper hand when the power of money was given the protection of "free speech" and allowed to flood our system of government unchecked, largely through anonymous donors concealing themselves and their true purposes behind benign-sounding corporate names, now given the legal status of "persons" with all attendant rights. Along the way, our Supreme Court prematurely pronounced a happy end to racism as a prelude to undercutting the Voting Rights Act that once served as a bulwark against the revival of Jim Crow laws and other voter suppression tactics in the states of the Old Confederacy and beyond. Then the Court gave a green light to gerrymandered voting districts, expressly rigged to perpetuate one-party rule while preserving the illusion of democracy. There will be an election in 2020, I suppose, but to what effect? The fabric of our nation has been torn asunder and democracy robbed of its vitality. Still, we must continue the struggle through new leadership, willing to stand and fight against partisan forces that will not be appeased by compromise.
12
Trump can do no wrong, executive privilege to prevent testimony of any and all who worked for him, executive trumps legislative or judicial, etc., etc. -- why not call Trump a fascist?
Trump the Fascist -- has a nice ring to it, the ring of truth. Go on offense, all the time, in all ways: Trump the Fascist, who will end democracy as we have know it for over 200 years. Yes, Dems can campaign on issues, but a little fear of something very real that could very well happen, is also in order in 2020.
7
Everyone keeps harping on how far ‘left’ the Democratic Party has evolved but statistically speaking, it’s the Republicans.
The NYT just this week posted an article about how the Republican Party has moved very far to the ‘right.’ Much more so than the Democratic Party has moved left.
So the debate should not be about how liberal the Democrats are but how closed-minded and stodgy the Republicans are.
Closed-minded and stodgy works but I’m thinking more along the lines of rampant out-of-control corruption. Just like their Russian allies.
Social media distortion, rampant gerrymandering, voter exclusion, Supreme Court packing, lies, fraud, multiple sexual offenses (Trump and all 24 women who accuse him), and TREASON.
Naw, the Democrats are tame compared to what the Republicans have become.
5
@PC
So, I agree with you across the board, but the study the Times covered (and Krugman refers to here) was fatally flawed in that it counted Constitutionalism as a right-ward tendency. That is just historical opposite land. Constitutionalism to the foundation of liberalism and the entire modern world of democracy and tolerance.
1
Fully predictable that Trumputin and crew, Mitch included, would follow the well known historic game plan that unfolded back in the 1930's via Mussolini and his Fascists. We have seen this pony before. Same story, different players.
8
Why is the media always able to get the perfect shot of the magahats en force wherever the may be, and never a picture of true patriots gathering ? I know it doesn’t happen often enough. Where is our Chicago Seven? Why is the media so eager to make his base (a minority) the star of this story?
The media is indeed the message, and the media are biased.
4
Republicans have thrown the S-word around so recklessly that hundreds of millions of Americans are now eager to label themselves as socialists. They're nothing like socialists, of course. At their most extreme, they want to emulate that leftist Communist worker's paradise we call the United Kingdom, or pattern our nation after the People's Republic of Australia.
Democratic candidates, some of whom aren't afraid to call themselves Socialists, have shown absolutely no interest in the abolition of private property or the nationalization of our industries.
On the other hand, let's look at Donald Trump. He believes that the media should be compelled to support the State, and forbidden from criticizing it. He believes that the State should decide who Americans can do business with. He believes in using the power of the State to control what we buy and sell, to create jobs by banning competition. He believes in subsidizing failing industries with taxpayer dollars. His policies will literally lead to the abolition of the free market.
"Socialist" is not an adequate word to describe what Trump is. Trump is a Stalinist, pure and simple.
9
As Margaret Thatcher so aptly put it, the problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.
1
@Mon Ray
Actually, that quote is considered a myth--she didn't actually say it. Also, it just really contributes nothing to understanding socialism, free markets, democracy, authoritarianism, or really any of the ideas in play. It is kind of an intellectual wag line that turns off thinking.
4
“Sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.” Tell that to the Republicans who for decades have been raping anyone who works for a living (the middle class) in favor of those who live off interest for decades. How many permanent tax cuts have gone to real estate investors, hedge fund managers and billionaires? The rest of us get temporary crumbs and eliminated deductions! Stop with these pithy phrases that only serve to cover the Republican lies!
1
Many Americans wouldn't know a socialist even if one were sitting on their head.
10
One measure of the rightward shift in the United States is the failure of the media to note the difference between Donald Trump, the man who took out $80,000 of full page ads calling for the use of the death penalty against five innocent African-American children (the Central Park Five) who were framed for the rape of Trisha Meili's 1989 rape and Donald Trump, the man who currently occupies the office of the American presidency and actually raped E. Jean Carroll in 1996.
Anybody who used to look at Mussolini's Italy or Hitler's Germany and exclaimed, "It can't happen here" is now compelled to reevaluate that and first in line should be a responsible media.
The media was tested in 1971 when major outlets, including the New York Times defied the Nixon administration and published the Pentagon Papers.
The media failed in 2003 when they caved to the lies of the Bush administration by endorsing "weapons of mass destruction" and the invasion of Iraq that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and led, to among other things, the ISIS phenomenon.
The media, today faces a similar historic challenge. The Murdoch family (Fox News) has found that there's much money to be made by embracing and even fomenting reactionary lies and social division.
Whither go the rest? Whither go the troubled fortunes of the American democratic experiment?
7
Republicans have always fought dirty, Democrats have still not learned that lesson, instead preferring to holding hands and doing kumbaya.
4
@eastbackbay - Republicans, who've believed for decades that "government is the enemy," will fight by destroying everything our government does and stands for. Democrats, who want government that works for everyone, aren't willing to destroy the government in order to "win."
1
This is still all about race, and how mad the TEA (GOP) White Nationalist Party is at the Democrats for nominating and getting a black man elected President (twice). This is not about socialism or the economic collapse of the white working class. No, this is about race and pure tribalism of the worst order. The word “socialism “ to them means something very different, it means to them that Democrats favor a pluralistic, multicultural, multiethnic society based not on race, but meritocracy where absolutely anyone can succeed to the highest levels of society. This is completely unacceptable to the TEA (GOP) White Nationalist Party, and why they hate Democrats so much as they do now.
The TEA Party, which was birthed immediately after Barack Obama was elected as our first President of color, has always been a white nationalist faction parading under the laughable moniker of fiscal conservatism interested in low taxes, low government spending and balanced budgets is now the GOP. The TEA (now GOP) Party helped spawn birtherism and claims that Obama was a secret Muslim all for the purpose of the delegitimization of Obama as President, but those two claims are entirely racist in them of themselves. This is who they are.
7
Paul Krugman is wrong here. The GOP is more extremist and right-wing than the furthest right in Europe. No conservative party in Europe, not even the neo-Nazis, would be opposed to universal health care, mandated parental leave, mandated paid vacation, strong labor unions. The US, and the Republican Party in particular, is an outlier in many ways, and not in good ways.
5
A political party that can put such a bad president in the White House has no good reason to exist.
13
Naked voter suppression? Where did this happen?
It’s time to re-read “Fascism - A Warning”
by Madeleine Albright.
Fascinating, easy to read, concise history.
Gives deep insight into Trump and his supporters.
3
I read a few years ago that the Republicans' propaganda committee considered referring to their opposition as the Democratic Socialist Party. They didn't go through with the proposal, but it gave me an idea, particularly after they chose Trump as their ideal. I think the Democrats should refer to their opposition as the Republican Stupidity Party.
3
There is very little that can be done to address the third of Americans who are in Trump's base. Those people are lost. Facts don't matter to them, and maybe never have. Those are the people who are in favor of treating children like terrorist detainees at the border, i.e., they're nuts. The election for Democrats is about rallying the democratic base and appealing to the Americans who voted for Trump because they thought he would address the economic problems and anxieties of the country's diminishing blue collar and manufacturing industries. Despite a strong economy, Trump's policies have been a disaster for middle class workers, never mind the poor. His entire government from stem to stern is beckoning global environmental disaster with it's outright climate denialism. If you're in the millionaire and billionaire class, you have a lot to thank Trump and the GOP for because they just handed you a pile more cash in tax cuts to pile on the top of your existing riches. Better hire a Brinks truck to follow your hearse to the cemetery. If you're anyone else, and you're not a slobbering, rabid racist troglodyte, you must fill in the oval for a Democrat. Anything else is masochism.
4
Not the brightest bunch of supporters but typical of what we see at his rallies.
America has perfected a socialist state- It's called the Us Military. Cradle to grave entitlements including education, housing and lifetime healthcare.
4
The French RN extreme right party of Marine Le Pen supports free education for all up to university , free health care for all, 5 weeks paid vacation for all annually, 35 h/ work week , 6 month maternity paid leave . and other cultural and social services.
Those would be considered like communist practices in the US.
In the USA, even leftists democrats don't have half the political views of the extreme right in Europe.
6
Dr. K; your points are on the mark, as always. However, I think that even more important than pointing out the lies is the style with which it is done. What will determine both the presidential and senate races is turnout among the young and minorities. For that we need a ticket inspires, people with an element of aggressiveness who will not be bullied. It will also help to have a woman and a black or Hispanic candidate on the ticket. Sad that it should be so, but this is America in the 21th century.
2
I see a lot of blame being tossed around, both sides. But under that skin, people want a safe place for their kids and themselves to live. They want a safe supply of food. They want good medical care at a reasonable price. They want quality schools, again at a reasonable price. They want good jobs at a safe workplace. The political parties, spend all their time bla,sing the others, immigration for example. It's obvious, to me anyway, both sides want the illegals here and coming in, driving down wages (it's way cheaper to hire someone for $12/hour with no insurance or medical, vacation, retirement, or protections), keeping rents high due to demand, and having a replaceable workforce that doesn't gripe about conditions. Both sides are swayed by Big Pharma Money, Insurance industry Money, Petroleum Money, Medical Industry Money (I think there is a theme there), and if some idealistic person gets in there, determined to not be swayed by it, they just don't get elected again, you cannot defeat that big money.
1
Fascism is government by the corporations, according to Mussolini, who was a fairly successful fascist, for a while. The U.S. has moved steadily toward fascism over the past four decades, led in this effort by the Republican party. It's also important to remember that the U.S. was founded largely by practicing fascists, that is, a corporation of farm owners operating slave-labor death camps using hostages kidnapped in Africa and shipped to the colonies. Their methods included torture, murder, and rape. The rich colonists wanted their taxes and regulations by the British crown eliminated so they could enjoy the fruits of their slaves' labor.
In this election, voters will decide either to continue moving back toward our founding fathers' fascist corporate federalism, as we have for the past forty years, or to change direction and move toward a more democratic and inclusive society, where a capitalist mechanism is regulated by government in such a way as to increase the general welfare. Our discussion of choices should be had in this context.
3
“Nobody in these debates wants government ownership of the means of production, which is what socialism used to mean.”
Mr Krugman, if only you could have written that sentence in 2016!
It is true that the outcome of the Presidential election might have been exactly the same. But If you had used your media position to describe the true nature of Democratic Socialism, the current debate about access to healthcare, minimum wage and college affordability would be much further along. You failed the the readers of MSM!
3
This is a really important distinction: Socialism is NOT SIMPLY "government control over the means of production," but "government control over the means of production in a GENUINELY DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY." An undemocratic, fascistic state could control production--that would clearly not be socialism. That is more or less what the USSR had.
186
@BB
Yes, indeed. And Russia called that "communism" when in reality it was a nationalized oligarchy bent on subjugating the people in organized feudal serfdoms.
'A rose by any other name would smell as sweet'. What matters is what something is, not what it is called.
Therefore, the Democratic platform for 2020 ought to include the declaration that the party is not socialist in any sense but "progressive" in that it supports unions, medical care for all regardless of economic status, or rank and taxation equivalent to equal representation. A party of progressive ideas and the value of the individual without regard to race, color, or creed.
The rich ought be taxed just as the poor and the money be directed to the greater good: education, infrastruture repair, and preparedness for climate change and refugee migration.
45
@BB And don't forget that "Nazi" means "National Socialist," which was nothing like democratic socialism.
20
@BB
and what China still has
10
Biden claiming he and OBama saved country and world. That’s laughable. Such a ego like Trump. They sold it to the rich. Time for a revolution.
1
It will be significantly on the media to check/checkmate what will be a strategy of continuous lies as we have already lived for years with Trump and
his fiends.
The major media should publicly sign a code of conduct so they don’t get
played by spinmeisters.
2
Mr. Krugman's column, and most of the comments here, demonstrate how the American left vilifies the right, justified by extreme, and extremely wrong, descriptions of what the right actually wants and supports.
But to be fair, most people on the right have equally extreme and wrong understanding of the left.
Don't believe it, at least for your side? See the most recent results from the Perception Gap at https://perceptiongap.us
Most of us seem to believe the worst of the other side, thinking they hold more extreme views than they actually do. And the perception gap grows with education, at least for Democrats, and with media exposure, except for old fashioned network TV news. (BTW, readers of the NY times have larger perception gaps than watchers of Fox news.)
We could try to really understand each other, and work towards more civil politics. Or we could wallow in partisanship.
"Comey Says Clinton May Be a Crook!"
I know this headline never appeared but it may as well have for the ten days after the GOP released James Comey's private memo to his Congressional oversight on 10/28/16. [FWIW, why hasn't this sort of dirty-trick been outlawed by extending the Hatch Act prohibitions to ALL branches of the government?]
We have now twice seen Donald Trump twist and gish-gallop a fallacy into substantial reality. (Comey's leaked re-opening memo and the 'No collusion! Complete exoneration!' interpretation of the Mueller Report.)
Can anyone doubt that there will be another 'Big Lie' to attempt to hold onto the Oval Office? Will the public be fooled again? When a third of the media is willing to publish and support the lie, the rest of us could certainly be rolled if we are not resolute and on guard.
Register and make sure that you vote.
2
Paul, It would be nice if you used your platform to exhort change rather than highlight problems and division, casting the situation as hopeless. Your insight is valuable (though I wish you'd stick to economics!) but the 'those guys are bad and we're doomed' style is not helping!
1
How did southern slave owners convince non slave owning southerners to fight and die for slavery? They weren't fighting for slavery they were fighting for States rights. Capitalist are always best at marketing.
2
It was Newt Gingrich’s Contract for America that was the turning point in the Republican tilt toward Fascism (let’s call a spade a spade). Thereafter, the crusade morphed into the Tea Party. All these changes occurred in revolt to a Democratic presidents (Clinton & Obama).
The question is will Democrats rise up to the same degree and quash the rise of Fascism in America or has the Republican Party done enough to cement control over the both federal and state governance.
I am hopeful come Nov 3rd, 2020, America’’s revulsion of Trump and the quisling Republican Party will result in an overwhelming victory for Democrats and the Constitutional Republic our forefathers fought for.
3
I totally agree that the media and their coverage is essential in this (and every other) election. Their comparisons of Clintons gaffs to Trumps horrendous lies being equal was appalling. Noting that what Trump says is a lie and burying it in the body of an article is wrong. Actually, I wish the media would stop publishing all the nasty tweets Trump makes. They aren't news and publishing them just feeds his desire for attention without helping anyone. I don't subscribe to his tweets and really don't want to be subjected to them in the mainline media. Normalizing the Republican lies is on the head of the media.
2
Hey, Krugman:
You're the one who accused Bernie Sanders of being a socialist in 2016. When a Cornell economist, using a mainstream macro-economic model broadly accepted by respectable economists (including you), demonstrated that Sanders' platform would produce the greatest growth (i.e., was actually the most Capitalist!) you aggressively discredited that economist. Yeah, you and the rest of the Hillary hustlers cried like the pod people in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."
And you're pointing fingers again, Krugman. Maybe its time for you to own up that you helped tilt the Democratic nomination to a candidate who couldn't (and wouldn't) campaign her way out of a paper bag.
2
SOCIALISM VS FASCISM I think it's just fine to say the S and F word when discussing the elections. While the Democrats could be rightly described as something akin to the European Social Democrats, the GOPpers are far closer to Facists. Indeed they are dscribed as being to the right of the so-called conservative parties in Europe. How did things get to be this way? The major players are Rupert Murdoch, who's doing global branding and peddling of conservative governments by using propaganda to substitute for news. Then there are the Koch Brothers, who spend much of their fortune paying for the politics they favor. In the US the State of the Union is weaker than at any time since World War II. Trump has engaged in a government-wide power grab by stuffing the bureaucracy with cronies, most of whom are ignorant, who will do his unbalanced, extremist bidding. If the concentration camps for children separated from their families in other camps don't get your attention, you're placing the society and yourself to great danger. I believe that if it were up to Trump, Putin will already be a co-president of the US. Putatively he probably is. So far, Trump has successfully stonewalled the Congress. It remains to be seen how long it will be until there are some cracks in the wall. But as time goes on, the flicker flame of our democracy is weakening and in danger of being extinguished.
1
You got that right! "And such an accusation would indeed be somewhat over the top — but it would be a lot closer to the truth than calling Democrats socialists."
1
Our great socialist enterprise, the military industrial complex goes unexamined by democrats. It's past time to deconstruct it and put the monies saved to the service of the American people.
1
Even Venezuela is hardly socialist in any sense that I understand the term. It is an incorrigibly corrupt narco state whose rule serves nothing more than the perpetuation of its illegitimate hold on absolute power.
1
Socialism (n) so-cial-ism: The word used to describe anything that conservatives don't agree with.
5
Mr. Krugman is absolutely right. Present day Republicans are much closer to fascists than Democrats have ever been to socialists, and I think the Democratic candidates, and the press, should call them out for what they are.
The right-wingers wrap themselves in religion and fake patriotism to justify chipping away at our democracy, and imposing their selfish, narrow views on everyone else -- and attacking anyone who disagrees with them.
2
My first big question for both candidates at the Presidential debate: If elected, what will you do to restore Democracy?
Using a trumpism against him, my first question to Trump: "Some people" are saying that you're a Fascist. How do you respond?
These debates need to zoom in on the candidates' specific policy agendas and how they will accomplish them.
An incumbent president runs on their record. The upcoming debates need to hold Trump to account for the policy vacuum swirling around in the White House over the two biggest issues that underpin economic success: Health Care and Infrastructure.
No more policy blanks.
Then, if Trump goes off stalking more than 6 inches from the podium, the broadcaster needs to signal, game over, and pull the plug. That moment is history against a woman candidate was a total disgrace.
2
This is very old news. The right wingers of the 1930s routinely denounced FDR as a socialist (and a “traitor to his class”) and famously responded by labeling them “economic royalists.”
1
I used to believe education was the antidote to Republican ideology of divisiveness and fear of diversity, but Trump has made it clear that the Republican Party is actually a cult of desperate white men who are bred without the capacity to reason. You cannot educate acolytes devoted to oppressing, not just others, but themselves in pursuit of placing Trump (the antithesis of all that is American) on an alter, making him a Deity outside of law and order. In short, the Republican Party is a dystopian religion. Its practitioners willingly offer their children in sacrifice to their faith.
3
I do not have the time to read all the responses. If someone has already made the this point, I apologize. Democratic candidates: Stop using the word socialism. Stick with your plans and facts, it is refreshing after listening to the fraud in the WH.
To get America back on track: Elizabeth Warren.
1
So “socialist” is a dirty word. Replace it with “humanist”.
That will diffuse the opposition because they would be forced to define it, relate it to their negative definition of socialism, and try to spin humanistic principles in a negative light.
I doubt if they can do that. So Democrats should not take the “socialist” bait, they should change the word for their policies entirely.
Make words mean something.
1
"Fascism is a form of radical authoritarian ultranationalism, characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition and control of industry and commerce."
If the GOP are not fascists then we need to change the definition.
1
As one of those political scientists who have commented on the rightward swerve of the Republican Party, it seems to me that the American people need to come to grips with reality. Despite their rejection of the label, the current GOP is the party of American Fascism.
3
The Republican Party has been working for years to undermine our democracy in a brazen move toward one-party rule. What we have been witnessing recently is simply greater openness in their push toward this goal, just as we have seen greater openness in their white supremacy and white nationalism. This is not about an apparent desire to move back to the Jim Crow days of the 1950s (when white men were men and all women belonged to men), but a movement toward one-party, Republican rule. I have never believed they were truly the patriotic party they profess to be.
1
Bravo Mr. Krugman for introducing the "fascist" word for the GOP. Not only is the so-called "president" is fascist in his method of functioning, but his entire congressional party behaves in a fascist manner.
To take this even a step closer to the truth, the Democrats should make a centerpiece of the the primary and election campaign the fact that every GOP senator, and all but one GOP representative is totally cowed into submission to supporting Trump regardless of this lies, policy corruption, and blatant obstruction of truth.
In fascist dictatorships, the corruption is supported by henchmen/women who have no principal but only wish to preserve their own necks politically. They will not cross the fascist leader because the fascist leader wields such power with money and media resources, that the leader will totally destroy and devastate the career of any in his party who will stand in disagreement him, or even criticize him.
I am sorry for America that most of us once believed in no longer exists, as no president in the past has ever had such a fascist supporting base in congress. The Democrats need to expose this total corruption and fascist control of the GOP in the primary and election campaigns. Doing so will help the Democrats win and also bring some decency, truth, and honor to our politics, and get rid of fascism forever.
4
And yet another column by Dr. K that is truly fair and balanced, and absolutely true. Unfortunately, he preaches to the choir here, except for a very few cons who continure to spout unfounded talking points, as is their right. However, out in the real world, average Americans are so under- or misinformed about politics, history and current events, it boggles the mind. I'm sure many of the readers here have the same problem when trying to conduct a conversation with friends, relatives, etc., who are so ignorant of what is going on, and for the most part don't even seem to care. All of the weak excuses they use for being so will encourage you to either write off the human race or look for the nearest bar. Unfortunately Americans by and large are fat, dumb, and happily ignorant, which is how we ended up in the mess we find ourselves in. The republicans count on it. Until the roof literally starts crashing down on their heads, they will not pay attention or get off the couch. So, we get the government 'they' deserve. I wish I had a solution or more postitve message, but I don't see it.
1
The irony of attacking Democrats as socialists is that Trump's 2016 campaign was all about class struggle--a very Marxist term. Back then, I heard him saying, including in his inaugural address: Power to the people; down with the ruling class; the end of imperial America! Of course, his class struggle rhetoric was full of hate, derision, disrespect, vulgarity, and jingoistic nationalism. Nonetheless, he was appealing to the class consciousness of that ballpark full of voters in those 3 states that got him (statistically improbably) elected.
1
"Privatize profits, socialize costs" -- the hypocritical mantra of American capitalism in our era.
3
There's a "national" day for donuts, hugs, selfies, puppies, coffee, etc. but we should perhaps deem today "Paul Krugman Day". THANK YOU for calling out the media (my beloved NY Times included) for its complicity in normalizing Republican vitriol. Where are the brave souls who will look into the face of ugliness and hatred and call it so?
3
It's hard to place the GOP on a spectrum of political ideology. They are an opportunistic party recruiting disciples of piratical forms of capitalism, brutal forms of simplistic "democracy," and religious bigots. Trump us a convenient leader pro tem because he has no fixed ethical or moral center.
3
It's amusing to see republicans whine that ex-felons shouldn't get the right to vote, because they'll all vote for Democrats, period. The same goes for college students, women and all minorities. They all are going to vote Democratic, so it's unfair to let them vote easily.
If republicans are so worried that a huge majority of citizens won't vote for them, doesn't that say something? It explains why they constantly have to wave scary words around like 'Soshulizm!'. It explains the rage against immigrants who aren't already white and well-off. It explains the activist judges they appoint, so that when citizens sue for justice, they will find only the republican version of America.
1
Mr. Krugman, Let’s make it simple. The initials G.O.P. now defines those folks as a Gang Of Perpetrators.
Interesting. It's never occurred to me to lob the epithet, "fascist," at the far-right GOP, and it feels like another divisive step into the dark place America seems to be going, but if it steps like a goose, maybe it's time to call it a goose.
1
The press-- including the New York Times-- has a lot to answer for, here. Why on earth were you guys spending so much time going over John Podesta's email trying-- and failing-- to find something more newsworthy than his fettucini recipe, instead of focusing on the shocking Access Hollywood tape, and other blatant examples of Trump's malfeasance? Or focusing on who was behind the release of the tapes?
Writing in the press like the current Republican party is a normal, American political party operating within traditional American values means the game is already lost.
1
Calling moderate Democrats “socialist” is as strange and no more strange than calling radical right-wingers “conservative”, which the press does unquestioningly. It seems no one in the press or public knows what any term means. Trump’s 42 plus percent can be counted on to react in fear to a meaningless label, “socialist”, while clinging to another meaningless label, “conservative”. And the one-percenters are laughing all the way to the bank.
428
@Carmine, good point.
The media should really be using the term "reactionary" to describe many who refer to themselves as conservatives.
43
@Carmine: Public sectors of mixed economies are inherently socialistic. That distinguishes the public sector from the private sector, which is typically capitalistic.
6
@Carmine Please remember that it isn't the 1 percenters. it's the .1 percenters.
13
Expecting 'the media' to provide balanced, nuanced, substantive reporting in this short attention span, reflection-free society is a fool's errand....voters hungry for agenda-free perspective will be required to do their own homework, and the reality is they are not the demographic that will decide this election....
1
Let us define our terms accurately. "Socialism" means that the government gives a poor family a $5.00 stipend to buy milk and bread for the family. Terrible. Government interference with the economy. "Capitalism" means that the government spends several billions to bail out the risk-takers who got us into the 2008 financial collapse. Great. Saving the economy, so that the risk-takers can make their investments and risky bets once again without too much fear .
1
Once again Paul Krugman shows his naiveté or perhaps his intellectual dishonesty. Progressives have been lurching the country away from founding principles for over a century. They believe in and desire socialism. Each proposal is another step closer. If they were honest they would offer the following to the American people: first a referendum on a Constitutional convention so we can air out the people's desires for our form of government. Understanding then secondarily that it may lead to a division of the country into two or more countries. It would be a sad end but an honest one. And if that is the people's will, the coasts can form their own governments and the vast swath of middle America can have their own. Happy Independence Day.
Mr. Krugman: Going to the same level as Mr. Trump is not productive. Calling Republicans un-American doesn't do anything but fire them up. The job here is to persuade and one doesn't do that by calling names. I recognize your point as to where the party is at this point, but name calling won't move it more to the center. This has been the problem all along; people lashing out without thought which only entrenches the other side.
When Mr. Trump came to power, I was really surprised how many republican politicians changed their tune and how quickly. I thought at the time that this was just a sign of extreme opportunism and lack of moral values. Now I think for them it was a liberation. Finally being able to show their true face without shame. Outing these guys is at least one thing we can grateful for.
15
Spiro Agnew (remember him?) and Trump have scared the daylights out of the press. Now, with few exceptions, it is afraid to articulate anything that would bring more criticism.
4
One suggestion: if we really want to move forward in our political discussions, let's stop using this term: "American" as in "that's American" or "that's 'Un-American." It's pointless. Last night we saw 10 people trying to out-American each other, some in embarrassing fashion.
No one in the press will ever use the term in any meaningful sense, for if they did they would call the Republicans truly American and not Un-American.
2
When Rupert Murdoch owns over half of all media in this country, while “news” is sport and drives revenues, we have lost our democracy. Once again, thanks to Reagan, we have witnessed the decline of our country. Infotainment is more important than news. And of course facts have a liberal bias, so republican’ts simply cannot allow any real to news leak to the people. We would then see in bold relief how vapid and non-existent their policy proposals are.
8
We’ve unwittingly accepted the left vs right Republican Narrative that has succeeded in doing what smaller Upper/royalist/billionaire classes throughout history have always had to do in order to remain in control: divide to rule lower and middle classes. I’m looking for a candidate who understands this and who seeks to unite the middle class, certainly not by attacking ‘MAG’ devotees but by pointing out to them, constantly, not the clownish distraction that is Trump, but rather the Republican legislative agenda that remains, because of Trump, somehow behind the scenes. What happened for example to calls for campaign finance reform? I guess we’re in retreat. And losers never win.
2
When a few corporations or individuals own all the things that everyone else needs to live, they will have the power to act as a de-facto government. Then we will truly be living in a command economy, with the rules dictated by the owners rather than by democratically elected representatives.
The bogeyman most feared by the far right will have entered through the back door and taken over, and no one will have noticed until it is too late.
Are we there yet?
2
"Nobody in these debates wants government ownership of the means of production, which is what socialism used to mean."
Paul, what's the difference between "owning" the means of production and "controlling" it, really? With all the regulations and standards that manufacturers have to deal with today, the government clearly controls and guides and influences production to a very significant extent, to the point that manufacturers are no longer free to produce their products in the unfettered manner they might wish. How is that not "socialist"?
This is not to pass judgment on the merit of these standards and regulations. We need them to provide safety and fairness to society. True, some work better at that than others. But they all combine to channel efforts of production toward a government-defined nexus. That may be goodness overall, but it sure sounds like socialism to me.
3
Through what they do, social democrats admit that they can do nothing more than reduce social consequences of capitalism. Telling it loudly would be too humiliating.
1
Thank you for saying the truth so forcefully. The GOP is now completely un-American. I works to take away the rights of citizens who aren't white, male, heterosexual, right-wing Christians. It specifically wants to turn ALL women into 4th-class citizens by taking away their right to control their own lives and bodies. (Yes, 4th class: men, then fetuses, then the NRA, then women.) They define religious freedom as the right of one religious group to force its rules onto all of us. And they have been working for decades through gerrymandering and voter suppression to give themselves a permanent majority, essentially turning what used to be a democratic republic into a one-party system. And they define all of that behavior as patriotic.
2
Great article. I didn't know about Fidesz, but it sure sounds like the US Republican Party is the American Fidesz.
Voter turnout will be especially crucial in 2020. It will be much harder for the GOP to cheat if they lose in a landslide.
2
Time to start studying, analysing and thinking before voting. Time to stop listening to catchy phrases and presenting programes, time to start serious re education programs for those in obsolete fields. It is time to stop playing politics and ask our government to govern for the people and by the people and not the party.
6
Our government has all but to admit it's fascist because we're already there. Trump can say what he wants, and his rabidly loyal base will believe him. There's no hope for them.
However, there are a lot of people, particularly young people, who are changing and becoming politically aware. If the 2020 election isn't rigged beyond hope, and if Sanders doesn't spoil it for the Democrats again, we might just be able to save our Democratic Republic.
7
I read the "study" that Dr. Krugman mentioned. It was dismaying subjective. According to their rankings, references to "traditional morality" and "a national way of life" were considered more right-wing than expressions of bigotry. This told me more about the analysts than it did about the political parties that they were studying.
2
Republicans have defined every form of government support, for those in need, as Socialism. By their standard, every form of Government spending, that aids the public, would be as well. That would include infrastructure, such as the Interstate Freeways, which many Republicans opposed, when Eisenhower got them started. It would also include law enforcement, fire departments, the military and, yes, even the Government itself. These are all things Americans have chosen to fund and run through our national and local governments. Our Constitution was written, and our Government formed, as a central structure, to enable us to prosper and lead our lives as free people. For all of its failings and shortcomings, it has worked out pretty well.
Dying, prematurely, for lack of adequate healthcare is not a form of freedom and certainly not prosperity. Yet, Republicans are going to brand any attempt to provide cost competitive, quality healthcare, to all Americans, as Socialism (the greatest evil they can conjure).
As much as Republicans want to protect the Pharmaceutical drug lords and the rest of the healthcare industries right to charge Americans twice as much, for so much less, the people, as Lincoln said, can not be fooled all of the time.
9
Ah, but the Republicans also love Scandinavians! They are constantly suggesting that Americans should look more like Norwegians. Isn't that just like saying America should look more like Denmark?
3
Why do all of Bone Spurs' faithful look the same? The only things missing are the armbands and special salutes with this demonstration. Not so much when he announced his re-election bid.
2
The media is to blame for most political dysfunction in recent decades in its effort to gain readership and higher ratings. Almost all of that dysfunctional has come at the Democrats' expense.
3
Watching the two debates made me proud to be a Democrat. Yet reading your piece this morning gave me a sick feeling, that the country has gone beyond the possibility of recovery, detail by detail. The conclusion I draw is, to paraphrase Obama, don't complain, VOTE, and contribute.
4
I was ready to bang my head against the wall after reading Brooks’ column. So glad I read this instead. Thank you Paul Krugman for reminding those afraid of “socialism “ that no plausible candidate is suggesting state ownership of our corporations.
7
In the mid-60's, at a southern red state university, my econ professor said, regarding the condition of the US labor movement, that Cesar Chavez was the only labor leader with an imagination.
Now the Dem's are faced with a choice between a tired old time politician in Biden, or with two women leaders who dare to imagine a better country.
We have a clear choice now. The GOP appears some days to be on it's deathbed but the SC just gave it permission to cheat. Another hurdle to leap over but the country seems tired of the decades old GOP's slide into open fascism.
4
Mr Krugman, you should be the opening speaker at the Democratic Convention. This way we can begin a one-party system.
Trump controls the conversation because he doesn't play by the rules. He lies so frequently and so unabashedly that Dems are left reeling and unable to respond. Playing by the rules will cost us the country, dropping to his level will cost us our dignity. Catch-22.
3
The mainstream media has been in denial about the Republican Party for a long time.
Nixon laid the ground work for what would come; the Southern Strategy embrace of racism, the sabotage of the Paris Peace Talks, the fear-mongering of "Law & Order", the enemies list. But he was a little too rough - there were still Republicans who were not willing to cross the line for him when push came to shove.
It was Reagan who took the rot mainstream with his attack on government as the problem - not the solution, voodoo economics, and "Morning in America" appeals to a mythical country. Remember Iran-Contra? Grenada? Lebanon?
Newt Gingrich - the Contact With America - or was it ON America? Serial adultery - Trump before Trump.
And the Bush dynasty in all its "kinder, gentler" glory. Panama. Gulf War 1, 911, back to the Middle East with a war of choice, and of course the Great Recession.
Donald Trump is the true heir to what the party has become over the years. No ideas, no principles - just a lust for power at all costs. And God help us, there's a sick part of America that has become addicted to it.
The one thing that may give us a way forward is that Democrats are finally starting to lose their fear of Reagan and return to their roots.
Charles P. Pierce nails it: https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a28208505/first-2020-democratic-debate-julian-castro-policing-reform/
Are enough Americans ready to follow their lead? I guess we'll soon find out.
8
Thank you Mr. Krugman. I was considering a point by point letter to Mr. Brooks in response to his piece today, "Dems, Please Don’t Drive Me Away". Instead I may just point him to yours.
2
State capitalism is not socialism.
1
@Spectator
What’s the merger of corporate and state?
As with everything else involved in this Presidential campaign, truth, fact and reality are all irrelevant. No amount of reason can alter the positions of what Hillary called the intolerables, but what I think are better labeled as the impenetrables. Are Medicaid, Medicare, Public Education, Social Security, Public Parks, Police Protection and Homeless Shelters socialistic? Of course. Will the impenetrables acknowledge this obvious fact? Never. Do Democratic candidates highlight these facts? No, because they intelligently realize that facts are irrelevant and that any reference to the evil and anti-democracy term "socialism" will harm their chances of election. We are a dumbed down nation, with abundant examples including educational test results, inane TV programs, an absence of reading beyond social media websites, a rejection of undeniable scientific fact and an ever increasing belief in conspiracy theories. I don't know how to correct our path. I only know that we are approaching the abyss.
7
The democrats need to make this election about Trump. They need to take his microphone away so that he doesn't take all the air and air time for himself.
The only way to do that is to start impeachment proceedings that the media will be forced to cover. They won't convict him in the Senate but if they don't do something visible - all their legislative work is being ignored - they will just be seen as weak.
The presidential candidates need the impeachment proceedings so they can go after Trump. Ignoring the malfeasance in the White House and pushing liberal policies won't get it. This will all be drowned out by a steady beat of trivial and not so trivial Trump nonsense and the insane media reaction to all things Trump.
6
@L F File
Trump will up the heat with immigration. Expect blatant racism to rally his troll army. We must also assume foreign adversaries will also assist him as they see him as a path to weaken or out right destruct the United States.
The media must be on their game and find ways to identify troll attacks. It’s constant even in the forums here on anything immigration related.
1
@Mathias
The GOP is really being traitorous when they fail to support measures to combat foreign election interference. The U.S.'s friends have no reason to interfere in our election so the GOP can only be encouraging our enemies to interfere. Are the enemies of America not their enemies?
2
I love Krugman's writing. He writes what I think. And he has a large stage to broadcast from. The Republican party needs to change and change fast away from the "win at all costs mentality" or America may slip into despair and less of a democracy.
1
We have seen what a confederation of Fascist states (Germany, Italy, Japan) unleashed on the world in the 1930’s. It is chilling to now see a similar alliance forming between the world’s major nuclear powers, Russia and America, both of whom are currently led by Fascist leaders. Putin has clearly transformed Russia from a Communist dictatorship to a Fascist one, after a short experiment with illiberal Democracy. Trump has transformed the US from 250 years of Democracy to a Fascist leaning illiberal Democracy, with the help of a White Nationalist voter base and Republican Party. The Trump/ Putin alliance is no joke. Americans who wish for a Liberal Democratic America had better reject Trump and his Nationalist support resoundingly in 2020. Trump covets Putin’s power and wealth, and is determined to duplicate the Fascist model that will achieve both. These are, indeed, dangerous times for decent people in America.
3
Israel made water a government managed issue. A social issue. When settling the Negev desert the planners realized that control of water was paramount. I think Americans have a knee-jerk reaction to any "ist" or "ism". Then, again, they do not seem to understand their own government. Is civics or social science even taught in schools?
1
@laurel mancini
Republicans have gutted public education in favor of vouches that can be used to fund religious institutions. Do you believe religious institutions teach separation of powers?
Remember the maga students on a field trip to a pro life rally and the Indian who marched up to them? That right there shows you that republicans are teaching their children it’s perfectly acceptable for religion to destroy individual liberty. They in no way respect the separation of powers to maintain respect in our society.
1
Being Australian, I have a good chuckle when Americans talk about the Democrats as being 'socialist'. Bernie Sanders is pretty centrist for us. Most of your Democrats are actually to the right for us. The GOP, in comparison, are a frightening nationalist group, similar to our 'One Nation' party which is heavily xenophobic and populated by people we think of as total right wing nutcases, advocating gun rights, targeting immigrants and refugees, and struggling to string coherent sentences together. We associate such groups with poorly educated voters, and rich people making money off the backs of the poor, and that's overwhelmingly how the world sees most of America who votes for the GOP and for Trump.
I guess it's all about perspective.
7
The first paragraph in every political report should be a warning about known inaccuracies and lies in what follows.
At present all the articles do is promote and disseminate lies masquerading as facts.
No good saying Trump has lied 10,000 times if you are the one spreading them.
Not one candidate in the Republican primary running to be the most power president on the planet would admit in public that they believed in evolution.
3
Where did the TERM 'socialist' come from?
I think it’s just a republicanism which presumes that predatory capitalism has captured “democracy.” So, an alternative is a republicanism which is demophilic, ergo “socialism.” And “social democrats” are just democratic republicans (i.e., more than demophilic statists: social democrats depend on democratic conceptions that aren’t statist).
In other words, socialists handed 'democracy' to capitalists in seeking authentic republicanism. But actually they never really understood how democracy CAN, in principle, be the best balance of good economics and good government.
If one doesn’t see the authentic character of democratic thinking—if one never really undersood that democracy is, in principle, ALREADY democratic republicanism (which the U.S. system IS), then you have to think that good government is something else.
But socialist thinking is basically a statist conception of republicanism.
It's actually kind of ironic.
Actual socialism got a bit of a boost due to Republicans constantly shouting about it. The Democratic Socialists of America's enrollment of new members has been going through the roof as of late.
Them shouting about it made people wonder, "well, what is socialism and why is it so bad exactly?" It's an outdated scare word that can easily blow up in their faces.
1
In the first 3 paragraphs of his piece, Mr Krugman told the simple truth about the dangerous Republican lie about what Socialism means to Democrats, vs what it means when applied to the means of producation. Social services - basic human rights - are plundered when they are turned over to capitalists, and "structural refom" , in the best sense, means making social services not-for-profit, pubic and private, and the means of productions free market, regulated by the government to prevent the exploitation of the American people. IF MSNBC, CNN and FOX would spend less on botox, and more on learning about, and communicating an understanding of what is happening,
-they could be a service to our country, not well dressed, "entertaining", fear-mongerers. Why do they not stir up fear about climate change/ecological collapse, the one area where Americans should be way more afraid than they are, and one area where main-stream econnomists got it wrong for way too long, and most still do.
1
How the media handles Trump’s tweets or lies decides whether Trump gets re-elected or not. Media chases the ratings, so Democrats have to overcome both Trump and the media hype of Trump. It looks like Democrats have to beat the opponent and the umpire. Tough task. But, Trump is so bad that even media can’t make him win.
4
A simple question to republicans why do you so hate democracy?
Of course we know the answer they know they are a minority party and can’t win without gerrymandering and voter suppression.
When Mitch McConnell refused to issue a bipartisan statement in 2016 telling American voters that Russia was meddling in our election on behalf of one candidate, it was a tacit admission that he knew the path to victory was through Putin. How low we have sunk as a country is truly astounding to me, when one of our two national parties is fine with foreign interference in our elections as long as it is on their behalf, democracy is on a swift slide to extinction.
4
PK has fallen into the "label trap". Ike and Ron would roll over in their graves to hear the "party of Trump" described as "conservative".
1
Those that perpetrate using labels as weaponry in our democratic process will never listen to the reasoned words in this article. The right has made knowledge irrelevant. All you need is grievance. Maybe they could make up some new words for "all you need is love" and make "All You Need Is Hate" their official party song.
Perhaps the Democratic party should just ignore their slimy name-calling, even though "Socialist" isn't actually a dirty word. There are positive things in Socialism. I can't think of one positive thing in Fascism.
My point, finally getting there, is that there's no reason to spend time trying to educate the right on what Socialism is or that it's not bad, or even that the Democratic party isn't socialist. They don't care, they won't listen, they won't learn.
So, Elizabeth Warren (my vote so far) and those that are serious about the presidency and what they can do for this country, to un-do Trump's destruction of democracy should continue to address the real issues with solutions and ignore the blaring sirens on the right. And, beating Trump is Job 1.
2
@Lock Him Up Since the GOP has insisted for some time on calling the Democratic Party the "Democrat Party," perhaps we should start referring to the Republicans as the "Antisocial Party" or the "Plutocrat Party."
1
We routinely forget that right to vote is not just a right: it carries a responsibility. That means, that one has responsibility to vote and to do some thinking before deciding how to vote. If necessary, there should be a fine if one does not vote! If course, in such case the local authorities would have a responsibility to provide transportation etc. to make voting possible for everyone!. Now, how do you decide how to vote? We are inundated with slogans, videos, televised debates (which look more like a vaudeville show than debate) and of course outright lies (starting from the top). In my state, before state-wide voting, League of Women Voters gets from each candidate or party information about their stand and pros and cons opinion. Of course it is biased but it provides a sort of concrete information that helps to decide how you want to vote.
Remember - right and responsibility are two sides of the same coin!!!
What we have to worry about is whether the day a new Democratic president is inaugurated, the people that believe the lies will take matters into their own hands. THAT is my fear. The GOP should wander in the desert for 40 years or until they have a new generation of reasonable people
1
What a breath of fresh air to hear Democrats on stage who are talking about investing in America again. Not in terms of giving more money to those who don't need it but investing in those who do. Republicans just don't get it. It is a investment to provide, for example, healthcare. Republicans think paying for healthcare is like throwing money away. But studies show that measured only in terms of the increased federal income taxes healthier people pay, healthcare largely pays for itself. That's not counting the other economic and non-economic benefits of health, and the ripple effect outward to families and communities. Same goes for education. But to Republicans investing in people is a worthless waste. Hopefully a majority is coming around to the Democratic idea that it's better to invest in people and enjoy the wealth they create than it is to keep on investing only in the wealthy.
1
"Fidesz has cemented its power by politicizing the judiciary, creating rigged election rules, suppressing opposition media and using the power of the state to reward the party’s cronies while punishing businesses that don’t toe the line."
Thanks Dr. Krugman.I've increasingly felt the GOP was acting like a fascist party ever since the real estate mogul started acting like an authoritarian ready to smash democratic institutions in return for donor cash.
More and more, I feel we're headed for one party rule (and may already be there) whether we want it or not given the GOP's increasing hold over the judiciary.
Having lived in Italy during their turbulent 70s, I can only say how much worry about the cracks in our own foundations.
Did anyone foresee how Donald Trump would create a cult of personality, demanding absolute fealty just like kings of yore?
And I'm supposed to fear claims my party is "socialist" from the biggest liar in US political history?
Please.
3
Democrats need some people who have voted Republican in the past to win future elections. Sine qua non.
without that nothing, it is an absolutely necessary condition for
Democratic victory in 2020.
Without the support of some Republicans and some independents,
the Democrats can't win national elections. There are simply not that many Democrats to elect a Democratic President, Senate and House of Representatives.
so Krugman trashing all Republicans as unAmerican is not accurate, not democratic, not ethical and not a winning strategy for Democrats nationally.
It is analogous to Joe McCarthy during his worst days calling the
Democratic Party of the Party of Treason.
@David
Given that roughly half the population did not vote in 2016, and that trump barely squeaked by (while losing the popular vote), I would say they don't *need* a single Republican vote (and judging from the polls, they are unlikely to get very many). They do need the couch-sitters and Bernie's pouters to get off the couch and vote, to save the country -- indeed, the entire planet -- from going further downstream with the second flush a trump re-election would bring.
@David
Your information is actually off a bit. But you are also correct. Democrats are the center but republicans have an outsized authority from the senate and electoral college per population count. Independents are the largest voting block.
If Trump wins you’re guaranteed a popular loss. He can only win through the system that puts the goal posts for representation further out for democrats and liberal leaning people.
If you want data...
Americans Continue to Embrace Political Independence - Gallop
I was an independent for much of my life but jump around to participate in primaries. The best we can hope is to reach independents. Warren has a good path by presenting policy. If so called centrists want more traction they need to do the same. Otherwise I assume they support republican policy.
I am actually hopeful the elections will go well for the Democrats. People haver seen 4 years of lies, crazy, of willingness to cater racism, suppressing voting rights, incompetence and corruption.
Imagine trump in a debate with Ms. Warren. He will call her silly nicknames and promise the most beautiful health care.
Ms Warren will explain in detail how Trump policies have hurt everyone except the 1%. And she has actual plans that make a lot of sense to fix it. She will show Trump to be an emperor without clothes.
The Democrats might not win over the hard core Trump voter, but they will win the elections. And nothing matters more than beating Trump AND winning back the senate from "graveyard" McConnell, the most cynical and dangerous politician the GOP has.
4
"...The only question is whether it will work.". It already is working.
One only needs to peruse the comments in this and other forums concerning politics and it can be seen that Democrats are now labeled as "socialists" and will cause our form of government to fail as those banana republics have failed.
Yet, those who feed the beast of Democrats equals socialism fail to see the downside of the one-party rule and the attempts by Trump in squelching any dissent and labeling dissenters as unpatriotic.
"So it’s really something to see Republicans trying to tar Democrats as un-American socialists. If they want to see a party that really has broken with fundamental American values, they should look in the mirror."
But that is exactly the con. Whether they are doing this rhetorical ploy to try to fool the public, or just to fool themselves is debatable. But the main point is to be seen on the right side of history, no pun intended.
We are in terrible situation that I feel has been brought on in no small part by the left of yesteryear. It's my belief that this schism and this wrenching of politics to the extreme began with the riots and protests of 1968. No matter whether the cause of any of them were correct, they scared the bejeezus out of people. The so-called silent majority was real and gave Nixon a landslide victory. Then after Watergate, it's been off to the races ever since.
Cool heads will win, but not without a lot of sore losers and not without a lot of damage.
@Jim Cricket
So it’s the boomers last hurrah. From Woodstock to fascism in one lifetime.
It’s imperative that youth vote this election to offset the boomers.
@Mathias Point of order. Not all so-called "boomers" are of one voice, and certainly not all "boomers" were on the front lines of 60s radicalism. My point was not generationals. My point was about how one extremism begets another begets a vicious cycle.
I don't have faith in "youth vote" as much as I have faith that the cooler heads can ultimately have the final word. My generation was the "youth vote" but that didn't guarantee much other than hubris.
Each generation does start its own history, but history shows that each generation is quite capable of making refreshingly new mistakes.
Conservatives want to PRIVATIZE their winnings, or profits, but they are insistent that we SOCIALIZE their losses (bailing out financial houses in 2008-2009, bailing out soybean farmers in 2018-2019).
The banks that got bailed out insisted that the bonuses they were going to pay the managers who actually got them int trouble were mandated by contract.
We should have demanded that any financial house that required a bailout declare bankruptcy (for a five minute period), which would wipe out all the contracts and the associated bonuses, after which they would get a bailout, but no bonuses or golden parachutes would be permitted.
1
@Joe From Boston
Management should have their wealth stripped of them. They had no problem economically assassinating the workers.
The Dems lose because they play fair and by the rules. The Republicans win because they know no bounds and will do anything to win. Michelle Obama was wrong. When they go low, Dems need to go lower. Despite everything about Trump wins in 2020. It’s already a lock.
1
@Mark
There is a time and a place. This isn’t it. It’s the exact opposite for democrats at this point.
In a time of corruption and dishonesty integrity and honesty is a shelter from the storm.
The problem is the media but we all have our rolls to play. The republicans can and will be defeated without resorting to their tactics.
War tax, carbon tax, wealth tax, surcharge tax, Wall Street tax, stock transaction tax, open borders, health care for illegal immigrants and 4.9 billion to care for illegal immigrants. All wonderful but what about our middle class?
2
"Nobody in these debates wants government ownership of the means of production, which is what socialism used to mean."
Well now:
Municipal Water Systems - not a means of production.
Public roads - have nothing to do with production of goods.
Public Schools - No importance to productivity
Airports such as DIA, owned by cities - No business relevance at all.
The Postal Service - Could not possible benefit productivity
Public Universities, which get patents and start businesses - Nothing to do with productivity
Governments that create stable business environments - Business could care less
Nope - no socialism in the USA!
---------
IN REALITY: Business is very dependent on governments. The productivity of fed, state and local governments, in goods and services, is huge and easily measured. I saw 41% with a quick google search.
In reality the USA is nearly as socialist as Denmark. Right Now.
Except, Kruggy, that Denmark’s population is that if NJ, and is a homogenous population, meaning it can work there but not here.
If you close your borders, restrict immigration, socialism and the welfare state to a certain extent can work. If your population is small and homogeneous...point well taken.
But we are not Denmark. We are America. And for some strange reason the Dems want open borders to retain power at the ballot box. Some Republicans like the Koch Bros. and their bought n paid for politicians and Chamber of Commerce want open borders for the cheap labor at the expense of American labor. Their position on immigration is why Trump won.
We have a diverse and sometimes Balkanized populace with massive immigration, legal and illegal.
Socialism, even the ludicrous “Democratic Socialism “ will kill us.
2
Lots of people don't like to think, they light to parrot simple phrases. "Bring it on." "Smoke 'em out." etc. The republican genius is that they understand the limited curiosity of many citizens. When the words "Socialist," and "Democratic," are
fused together the impulsive, uncurious, ignorant, folk have something to crow about, although they have no idea that it means. We live in a sad state. The Republicans have abandon the rules of engagement. As in war, how do you win when you still play by the rules.
2
I don't see the socialism bit playing out for republicans. It reeks of decades old propaganda coming from a party that relies on labels to instill unfounded fear of anyone not them in the more gullible of us. Let's face it they are very poor at governing and yesterday delivers nothing but yesterdays problems. They have become the party of labels. Deception is their friend, reality and truth their enemy.
It seems to to me that reasonable Americans with the ability and desire to reason have simply grown weary and tired of their outdated approach that relies on hatred and fear to maintain division. One party rule is their goal, the destruction of democracy is the means. They are indeed not the patriot's they claim to be. It is all a ruse, a con, a Trumpian grift.
2
While Donald Trump is the face of the GOP, I think he is not the strategist in the demise of democracy. The libertarian cause has been going on for the long haul to return the United States to a post civil war state. Every move is a stealth undermine of the public sector. The only deterrent of the GOP is the majority and they are working very hard to delegitimize the masses. We have not yet reached the point where public outrage is overwhelming. People in cages and intermittent terrorist attacks on ordinary people are yet not enough.
As long as there’s Fox News, there will be no reasonable coverage of the pertinent issues, and voters will continue to vote out of fear.
1
The comparison with what would happen if Democrats (or anyone for that matter) called Republicans "fascists" is apt. Worse, we have degraded the discussion so much that it's down to summing up the opponent in one word. I keep trying to make sense of this, and keep failing. It isn't reasonable to accept lies and deceits. Yet the anger and fear of the alt-right is real. Thank you for another excellent, if depressing, article.
1
Socialism is what Socialism does. Krugman, an Economist like me, knows about the "means of production" definition, but knowledge, reflection and analysis of history shows that sludge corruption, single minded unethical and inhumane policies are part and parcel to socialism. These as well as patronage, influence peddling, unearned privilege, nepotism, tribalism, self-dealing, careerism, self-serving, sold-appointments, favoritism, sinecurism, graft, simony, loopholes, abatements, sweetheat-deals, subsidies, state-capture. Corruption is Socialism (corrupt manipulation of government to benefit the powerful/advantaged-- socializing the cost and privatizing the profit), anti-free trade and supporting inefficient industries is the problem. Plus, if course, the Putin/Trump socialist nationalism of a repressive anti-free speech, anti-free press elite.
1
@perryp
That sure looks just like capitalism.
Krugman is correct, it will depend on the media. And I’m not optimistic.
Ever since the GOP started accusing US mainstream media of being biased in favor of the left, the MSM has leaned over backwards to favor the right, in order to prove that it does not favor the left.
The crazy show always gets the most attention. And the media handles it the way Barr handled the Mueller Report— the lie is what the people hear first in Giant Bold letters, while the truth shows up later in 14 point font.
Combine that with state TV known as Fox, plus Russian interference (oops, I forgot, Trump just told Putin not to meddle again, haha) and you get another four years of Trump.
Socialism? Dear Mr. Krugman, I don't care about name calling, or even your insinuation that Republicans are borderline fascists.
I just don't want America to become France, a once great nation that has become a second rate economic afterthought mostly due to your favorite tax regimes, suffocating regulations, and social giveaway policies.
1
While Repub-lickin's are horrified at the idea of government controlling the means of production, they're apparently delighted to have the means of production controlling the government.
When politicians such as Gov. Hickenlooper worry that Sander, Warren et al. will allow the GOP to label Democrats as "Socialists," they demonstrate their ignorance. Republicans have labeled every Democratic proposal since 1932 as socialist (and/or Communist).
It is time for the Democrats to return the favor and point out that Trump and most of the GOP are "fascists." That term is much closer to describing the GOP than socialist is to the Democrats.
Republicans have long and skillfully parlayed the use of simple rhetorical labels, like “liberal,” and more recently “socialist,” to demonize their opposition and energize their base. Trump has taken this approach to an entirely new level, aptly attaching nicknames that stick to various Democratic candidates and opponents, like "Sleepy Joe", "Pocahantas"and the like.
These bromides have become coins of the realm for Republicans. It’s been an effective tactic and one which has resonated with conservatives, largely because they reinforce with simple, easy to use words their supporters' perception of various opponents in this race or on that issue.
Democrats, generally, have failed to successfully emulate this to their advantage, being forced to play defense against such silliness, simply allowing them to go unchallenged. I get it. They don't want to dignify such juvenile behavior with a response to a specific provocation. They don't want to demonstrate that such taunts get under their skin.
So here's an admonition for Democrats: "fight fire with fire." Use similar tactics, over and over again. Start with "Republicon," for example, and move on to more personal appellations, such as "tantrump" to describe the president's juvenile rages.
And oh, don't forget Mike Pence's apparent Oedipus complex, calling his wife "Mommy" while refusing to be in the presence, alone, with another woman.
So many choices, and so little time before the next election. Better get started.
The left leaning media is falling all over itself today to praise the performance of Kamela Harris in last night's debate. She is the savior of the Democratic Party because she found fault with a decision Joe Biden made 40 years ago. She apparently thinks busing was the Holy Grail of desegregation.
They have picked their candidate and now they will cherry pick every incident, statement and photo op to promote their choice. And Trump will win in 2020.
The left leaning media brushed off everything Trump did in 2016, focused of Bernie's complaints about rigged primaries nitpicked everything Clinton and the DNC did and said. They worked hard to put Trump in the White House. Now I am seriously wondering if they are going to work to keep him there.
With friends like this.....
2
Socialism? Americans think Denmark when they think about socialism. Who does Trump think about when he imagines a role model? Putin? Xi? MBS? Republicans want welfare for corporations and privation for children, the poor, the elderly and for us all when we are sick. Republicans say they work for the American people but that only includes the wealthy. Everyone else, well they do not work for them. Government of the people, by the people, and for the people is for the rich people. They got the tax cuts. They don’t need health insurance because they have cash and can afford the best healthcare money can buy. They don’t have to bribe their way into the best schools. They “donate” a library. When they crash the economy they get bailed out, and 4 million Americans lose their homes and 29 million can’t return to their jobs and work three jobs now.
Republicans will use racism, sexism, xenophobia, elitism, and religion against Democrats. There are racists, male supremacists, xenophobes, and religious zealots who will resonate with Republican propaganda. Socialism has no resonance. Socialism is not communism. Comparisons with Venezuela, and North Korea are duds. Venezuela is being destroyed by big oil and big banks. North Korea is Trump’s crush. Socialism? Nah.
It is good to see someone point out the inevitable, that ANY Dem who will run against Trump has to deal with the S word slam. Since the Dems weaseled away from the L word in the 80s- 90s one has reason to fear.
While many here have the misconception that Socialism is Communism, the latter famously set out by K. Marx as government- and a dictatorship government- ownership of "the means of production", Socialism is a big tent, wide spectrum critter. And certain current institutions in our system are, at least half step, Socialist. Like Social Security (oh right, it is "insurance"), Medicare, Universal public education. One can argue laws to protect the environment against privatizing "enclosure of the 'commons'" are socialist, protecting a general ownership of the "means of production" for life itself- clean air, non toxic water.
Embracing those under their real name is a better strategy than weasel word worming away from the facts.
Of curse, sic, the problem is the system is rigged to support Our Capital Oligarchy. Media (think CNN- Harris won beginning to end!) is OWNED by the few and filters out any challenge to that status quo. & the Oligarchy clearly wants a Dem jiggy with that.
Like in 2016, meet your new "boss"...taking what the Oligarchy (his/her bosses) offers.
Period
"Most of the candidates are, instead, what Europeans would call “social democrats”: advocates of a private-sector-driven economy, but with a stronger social safety net, enhanced bargaining power for workers and tighter regulation of corporate malfeasance."
That is the crux of the problem here in the United States that a far too large minority doesn't understand that social democrats also have a social conscience to provide their population not only with universal healthcare at less than half the the price per GDP compared to the US, but also have - e.g in Germany, which has the strongest economy in the EU - union representatives sitting on the board of directors of large companies.
And when it comes to education, European high-school graduates have on average a better education than those with a four year bachelor degree in the US, with another caveat that higher education is free for those whose aim is an academic field.
The base of the vulgar, racist dotard in the Oval uses the word 'socialist' as a four letter word, and even consider it commie pure
2
Denmark has a 45-55% personal income tax and a 25% VAT
any whiff of socialism is disaster.. Governement social program wars on poverty -- addiction etc are clear examples
Like Lyin' Trump himself (easily the epitome of ignorance of politics and history), those in his loyal band of lemmings haven't a clue what socialism means or what a Socialist is. They use it as an epithet, unaware that it has lost its red-scare impact. I must say, however, in all fairness, that they probably can't define democracy either. How else could you explain why they use Democrat as an epithet, too? Pity the poor souls ....
Perhaps known false claims can simply be printed in a different color. Exposed for what they are.
well stated, but I doubt that reasoning apparent in this op-ed will prevail over the political madness that has consumed the Republican party. I guess it should come as little surprise as all human empires die a violent death and the US is no exception.
1
Thank you! Couldn’t have said it better myself! It is imperative that the fiction that the Democratic Party is socialist be laid bare. None of the candidates — even the one that describes himself as such — is socialist. Period.
1
The issue no one is really talking about is...
Trump supporters support lies.
They thoroughly enjoy, desire and uphold the bogus success that Trump has gained through lying. They see and now know that they don't actually have to live a successful life to get ahead or win.
They can lie ....and they love it! Dishonesty is king.
1
The correct description of the GOP that has been taken over by Trump now is 'cult of personality'. They are not quite yet fascists but the trend that way is obvious.
1
The American experiment in 'free' government is dead. Am I being too pessimistic. Yesterday I had that same strange sinking feeling as I read the 'decision' of the Supreme Court against all sense of fairness and compromise to allow gerrymandering as I did the night Trump was elected. The appointment of bush after the 2000 election by the Supreme Court, Citizens United and now the gerrymandering decision have stripped our country of a working democracy.
Is this what America is all about, a rabble of partisans fighting an endless war against each other? Since the GOP took power with the likes of Mitch McConnell the power of money, war and partisan politics has become all that America now represents. our brave experiment is dead and is it possible to bring the dead back to life?
1
I think you are right - the the media is sewing doubt and their quick evaluation (base their their own bias or understanding) has a big effect on what their readers think about.
To date the press is forever second-guessing much of what any democratic candidate or official says. Endless analysis and questioning of every candidate and every word they utter. While the President goes on uttering endlessly....
Let's stop writing and reading such journalists' stories, and trust ordinary citizens to evaluate the good, the bad, and the ugly without someone else's opinions interfering with their common sense. We may be surprised how well people read candidates' words and choices without assistance from the press . It may not be good for newspaper profits, but it could well help the election process.
Sadly, if we're depending on the media, much of which is corporate owned and devoted to selling itself with catchy headlines, we're sunk. Would that we could depend on a citizenry concerned enough about their country to do the work necessary to be informed voters.
1
There is a story that Henry Kissinger, when asked why so many academic disputes become so nasty, replied that it was because there is so little at stake.
I sometimes think that commentators and politicians on the right allow themselves to be so irresponsibly rancorous because they assume that there is some sort of safety net in politics, and their bad behavior isn't really damaging. They give themselves license to engage in fairly brutal name-calling and political gamesmanship because they think the system they are in has brakes and an infrastructure that will provide stability.
We're losing that stable middle.
1
Democrats need to,contrast what they are proposing versus what Republicans are saying. Republicans aim is not to focus the public on their policies, but to get people to look at the labels they are using. Democrats need to say: Do you want wider income inequality? What will be the consequences and price to all Americans if the gap is allowed to and actually helped widen? More people insured or fewer? Preexisting conditions covered or not? Free market drug prices or negotiated drug prices? More student debt or less? More unstable countries in our hemisphere resulting in asylum seekers or less? Retraining Americans for the jobs of the 21st century or more false promises that manufacturing and coal jobs are coming back? In short, Democrats need to focus voters on the choice that stands before them and I would say: Use whatever label you want, but it is the unchecked free market system that has replaced so called socialist government programs that is making you poorer, making the world warmer, and creating wars. If you are looking forward to the good old days, look to the programs that got you there not to the dismantling of them that has taken you where you are today and seeks to take you further from the middle class life not closer to it. If a weak government is what you seek, cancel your Medicare, privatize the police, the fire department, and the libraries. Wait for the private sector to fix the roads and bridges. And all for the low, low price of.....
2
Thanks for pointing out the Republican anti-American playbook.
Poor AOC has claimed to be a Democratic Socialist and many right wingers claim to hate here for that. I suspect that in fact, they hate her because she is everything they aren't. She's beautiful, well-spoken, popular, smart, successful, and represents a threat to the bland corporate men (picture Stephen Miller or the Koch Bros) who want to transfer ever more wealth to themselves and their buddies.
We will know who is rising in the Democratic party when the Republicans start running hit-man ads on them. Already there are ads here dissing Joe Biden. Honestly, the Republicans simply cannot accept the sharing of power. (Look at Mitch McConnell) If that isn't contrary to everything American government is supposed to be based on, I don't know what is.
2
As we re running toward the precipice of the ecological disaster produced by the GOP, the blind 36 % and their victories against democracy because of the Electoral College, an instrument of "one party" in the government, we will all perish because the "silent majority" continues doing nothing.
It takes little effort to walk into disaster in the American pseudo democracy.
2
Thank you for writing this. It's incredibly frustrating to see the lengths Republicans are going to to disenfranchise voters, disrespect institutions and dispense with norms - not to mention their embrace of white nationalism and cynical fiscal games (is anyone looking at what the federal government is spending these days?) - with what seems like the quiet assent of the press.
12
Socialism does not promote government control of the means of production. That was the old Soviet model which was not true communism nor socialism. True socialism has the ownership and decision making power in the hands of the workers. This is evidenced by the many thriving worker co-ops throughout the world. Witness the Mondragon Corporation of Spain with 73 000 employees.
1
@Kregor
Ah, yes. The “No true Scotsman” defense.
“Will we get coverage of actual policy proposals, as opposed to horse-race analysis that only asks how those proposals seem to be playing?”
Ironic that Paul’s own paper focused on who “won” the horse race as opposed to the policies articulated.
1
I have a friend who refers to Denmark as a country of "socialist slackers." So, I looked up the GDP per capita of Denmark versus the U.S., and it's about 15% less for Danes. But that's not taking into account the vast petroleum and mining resources that Denmark doesn't have and the U.S. does have. So, when you subtract the built-in advantage that the U.S. has, Denmark is just as productive as the U.S.
The same goes for taxes. When you add up the total tax burden for Americans versus Danes there isn't much difference. But Americans get a lot less for their money compared to Danes.
So, social democracy is absolutely a viable political strategy for the U.S.
8
Recently while sitting with a european friend the term socialism came up and I was told that I used the term "socialism" the way french intellectual refer to it , and my friend used it with the derision typical of a republican conservative. We both agreed that the american health care system was a horror story, that the american legal system favors the the rich over the poor, that the cost of education in america leads to economic in-egalitarianism.
Not mentioned was that americans favor regulations in general that mandate safe food, pharmaceuticals, clean air and water and that in times of economic crisis americans favor a very interventionist position that includes farmer subsidies, low cost loans and federal stimulus in the billions of dollars.
In short what americans favor is government that plays a very active role and they no longer believe in a capitalism that is regulated by an invisible hand , they want the very visible hand of government and some may want to call that socialism, or use other terms such as liberalism, progressivism, humanism. Whichever term is used what can not be escaped is that the american people want government to step forward in health care, the cost of education and economic wage stagnation...they don't care what it is called as long as pragmatically solutions to these pressing issues are found !
4
Republicans have to use this kind bashing of the Democrats.
It's not like they can tell their voters:
"Vote for Republicans so we can cut taxes for the rich, cut social programs for the rest, and increase the deficit / debt to be paid for by you, your children, and grandchildren."
7
Of course the 'media' accepts whatever the Republicans put out. Media is owned by corporations who benefit from the Republican agenda. I will say that both parties signed on to sending our manufacturing jobs to 3rd world countries for the cheap labor and we are reaping the consequences of those policies to this day.
3
My concern is that Trump did not arise de novo. He did not become the moral, spiritual, ethical, and philosophical leader of the Republican White Christian nationalist project overnight. All the hallmarks are there. This was a long time in the making. So with or without Trump we are left fighting far-right extremism in a white Christian nationalistic Republican Party that controls a large part of the American electorate through propaganda, massive political and legal power, and dark money. I don’t see how this end without some massive disruptive force. I doubt know what that is going to be? But we seem to be flirting with the 1920s and 1930s.
5
@BillC
But he put all that "was a long time in the making" on steroids, do you not agree? I can't imagine even the most repugnant of Repugnicans (other than Dear Leader) saying there were fine people on both sides in Charlottesville, to give but one example.
1
According to the Republican standard, we already have socialism.
Public grammar school and public high school - socialism.
It helped us become the strongest economy on the planet after WWII.
Social Security and Medicare - socialism.
I have never met a Tea Party person who wanted to get rid of Social Security and Medicare.
4
A very convincing article on how nasty the Republicans have become, but I disagree with the claim that the upcoming campaign arguments will have a large role in winning the 2020 election. The arguments are already over; thanks to the not-so-humorous buffoonery (indeed hatefulness) of the thing in the White House, and to the media, we have heard all the arguments many times over, have we not ? What will determine the winner in 2020 is the parties' ability to get their people to the polls - which ability has been shown to be the ultimate determinate in many, many campaigns.
3
It is noteworthy that virtually every Paul Krugman column contains a despairing comment about the state of political journalism with its obsessive reality-tv focus on drama, entertainment, circus spectacle, gossip, audience ratings, polling and personality, all at the expense of policy and substance.
Sadly, nothing has changed in the political news media since the debacle of 2016. It's the same cast of characters with the same obsession with polling, "Big Boards" and who's up and who's down.
Just as they were at this same point in the election cycle in 2015, when they went after Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton's emails and promoted and subsidized Donald Trump with free air time, the media is now in its full "take-down-the-frontrunner" phase, in order to create a competitive primary horse race for ratings and advertising purposes and to market the debates which they financially control.
It is truly sad and tragic that our great American political system has been reduced by the entertainment company-owned news media to yet another entertainment spectacle on the level of the NFL, WWE and Dancing with the Stars.
No one realistically expects that we can go back to the era of Cronkite, Chancellor and Murrow, but surely we can do better than this. The American people deserve better.
3
This column is the very definition of extremism painting everyone with the same brush. Both parties have now been taken over by the nut jobs. The Ds a bit less so for the moment but gaining fast. The frustration of the majority is that there is no longer any rational discussion. To say imagine the outrage if Rs were painted as fascists is not necessary. They are repeatedly and, well, the outrage is non existent. This is no way to convince anyone to move in the other direction. If it was, there’d be a lot more constructive work being done. The moment someone, is Biden, in this case says something remotely like being interested in engaging, they are pounced upon. It’ll probably take 20 years but eventually the Krugmans and the Trumps of the world will be done and something helpful can happen.
@Tim Kulhanek
I think you're confusing those Democrats who get the headlines and face time with the rest of the party. Extremism sells really well in the marketplace and leads to a distorted view of the Democratic Party.
@Tim Kulhanek
Trump and the GOP have been behaving exactly like fascists. Hence the label. People who collaborate with fascism, e.g. Vichy France, Nancy Pelosi, usually end up on the wrong side of history.
You are misusing the term socialism. Denmark has a socialist economy, but the government does not own their industries. Socialism is not a set thing, like being a member of a club. It is a continuum, and where you fit on that continuum depends on what parts of the economy you want to pay for with communal funds. In that sense even Trump is a socialist, because he is willing to use communal funds to pay for military defense and police protection and roads and highways. Like capitalism, socialism is not a political theory. It is an economic theory. We do not live in a capitalist country. We live in a democratic country that stresses capitalism as its economic model. China, on the other hand, is a dictatorship that stresses capitalism as its economic model. So we are all socialists of some kind, and the debate is where we should fit on the continuum.
4
We will continue to see more “horse race analysis,” unfortunately. Actual policy proposals will be ignored in 2020, just like they were in 2016. I hope I’m wrong about this, of course. Then again, now that a GOP-controlled SCOTUS has given the green light to gerrymandering, will it even matter?
2
Gerrymandering is now legal. The Supreme Court says so. When Trump gets his next Supreme Court appointment all checks and balances fall away for 30 years or more.
We are now living in an America that is like playing in the last 10 minutes of a game of Monopoly.
2
@MrC - no, the Supreme Court says that federal courts have no role to play; elections are the prerogative of the states. The redress has to be in the State high courts.
But, yes, the Roberts court is now politicized and tarnished. The republic has now crumbled; a new republic is needed - see you in about a hundred and fifty years. China and India, this is your time again.
4
The level of extremism that now defines the Republican Party appears to increasingly correlate to the level of desperation it feels as white racial hegemony faces increased threat by an increasingly diverse population. The fear is so great that Republicans are willing to destroy democracy in order to hold this rising demographic reality at bay. NEWS FLASH, Republicans: Those demographics aren’t going to change, and either you accept that or become the handmaiden for the rise of authoritarianism in a once-great nation that used to be the envy of the world.
This cancer extends deep into our body politic, starting with the Republican-dominated state legislatures. The remedy is a critical mass of voters nationwide who recognize where this Republican-led White supremacy agenda is taking this country, and deny its infectious spread at the ballot box. It is for this reason that I will not vote for a single Republican for the foreseeable future, even though I used to be one. I cannot, in good conscience, be a party to the slow destruction of the democratic principles which once made this nation great.
24
@RHD Well said. I too was once a Republican that faulty and misleading use of intelligence to push a bad position was one step too far. I'm occasionally tempted to vote of some republican here and there but their party no longer represents me, my neighbors, my community or my nation. They won't get my vote until they clean up their entire act.
2
“... cemented its power by politicizing the judiciary, creating rigged election rules, suppressing opposition media and using the power of the state to reward the party’s cronies while punishing businesses that don’t toe the line. Does any of this sound like something that can’t happen here? In fact, does any of it sound like something that isn’t already happening here, and which Republicans will do much more of if they get the chance?
Prof. Krugman, if you can’t see your description fits Democrat’s even more so than Republicans then you’ve lost whatever was left of your analytical powers.
1
Nice try, but he is spot on.
1
"Will we get coverage of actual policy proposals, as opposed to horse-race analysis that only asks how those proposals seem to be playing?
I guess we’ll soon find out."
The role of the media in 2020 will be as important as the candidates. The medias use of mindless false equivalence being the greatest risk and threat. If Trump wins, the result will be inherently menacing to the free press. Stay sharp. So much is at stake here.
8
@wilt The role of the media was always critical; and like all institutions, the media has never been perfect either. However, what technology (twitter/FB; bots; AI) have done is hijack the media and the public into echo chambers. That, unfortunately, is an irreversible disease. The so-called media (barons) cannot cure that.
Buzz words are the key to republican success. They use them all the time and it works. There are 2 types of republicans, those that understand how the buzz words can confuse and muddy meanings to their own benefit and then there is the rest of the party that falls for the rhetoric every time and will continue to through their own unwillingness to question and observe intelligently.
1
What country do you live in? It can happen here? Most Republicans and Democrats I know believe in the two party system. Most Democratic Socialist I know claim to admire the European democratic model but like them prefer one party rule with their party in charge. Our Republic doesn't allow it. Gerrymandering has been around forever. Get the legislature to fix it.
Who doesn't believe in the nation? Corporations and Progressives. They can make money anywhere. The rest of us don't dream of living in another country and creating the mess they have there here. We're stuck with here.
Poor Mayor Pete Talks the Talk of the Progressive but as far as Police shootings go he's stuck reality. The good Candidate from California says fire the police chief. It's always that easy. Maybe if the Hague was calling the shots. They must know better than Mayor Pete.
2
Democrats do not promote socialism but they go overboard in attacking capitalism. Corporations are bad. The wealthy are bad. Inequality is bad. Insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies and gun manufacturers are particularly bad. And the working class is widely exploited.
All these statements were made last night. And they express a hostility toward capitalism. That is not socialist. It is anti-capitalist. But the buzz words sure sound socialist.
4
For once, Paul Krugman, we agree. If it is one thing Republicans have mastered, it is controlling their message and making it the norm. Anything other than their message is labeled un-American, liberal, socialism, etc. Offense is easy, defense is, well, defensive.
Republican answers to our problems are sound bites. Example: they call for a citizenship question on the census. The sound bite on the surface, makes sense. Why shouldn’t the census count the number of citizens? As anyone who thinks further realizes, the question is not simple, implications huge and the effect can actually make the census inaccurate, to the detriment of federal disbursements to states, as one example.
But the deeper implications are not what Republicans want to discuss. They want simple, easily digestible sound bites and Democrats are left to explain further, turning many people off because simple is easy. Anything else can sound like whining or worse because solving problems is not easy.
10
America is way behind. Having lived and worked both in Europe and the States, I find social-democratic Europe a much better place to be. Better as in better schools, healthcare, infrastructure, opportunities, equality, etc. Wake up America.
31
Its all Bread and Circuses. Despite the ability to look at your phone and find a cogent definition of Confucianism in less than a minute, we are seduced by headlines as you mention that grab our eyeballs and say another thing. The Debates must have been great for NBC ratings, up there with the Olympics, good business. Wouldn't be there without Trump, so count the number of T articles in NYTimes and WaPo on front page. They get paid by the eyeball clicks not the circulation, and all is paid by advertising, which aims to influence behind the eyeballs. In the Middle Ages, the Church told us what to believe and punished us if we didn't, now we are rewarded for believing. The arguments inspired by Mr. Krugman are below and usually good, but the real test is in the periphery and the Rorschach test of advertising that will result. "Socialism" has been conflated with Communism for so long it is a bad word, even though T loves Russia, Communist.
We all have to be serious, I am getting sick of the bombast from the left too. I want Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth. Good luck with that!
2
Socialism is when the workers own the means of production. This "government ownership of the means of production, which is what socialism used to mean" is simply repeating the capitalists' attempt to redefine of the word into something easier to denigrate. Words matter.
9
If I thought I’d figured out how to give people more say over working conditions and something approaching job security in a gig economy, and wanted to persuade people to accept my ideas, I don’t think it would occur to me to do so by rehabilitating the term “soviet” and then playing around with what the term should now mean.
Why oh why are y’all trying to help us get clear about when and how we should cooperate as a society and when and how we should be able to go about our own business by rehabilitating and playing around with the meaning of the term “socialist”?
2
In Brave New World Revisited, a non-fiction work published by Huxley in 1958, he described the forces that are playing out in our country today and posed the question of whether or not liberal democracy can survive. His own answer was, "50 or 100 years from now our children will learn the answer to this question."
6
"Nobody in these debates wants government ownership of the means of production, which is what socialism used to mean." Which is why they should label themselves "social democrats" as opposed to "democratic socialists." It's a picky point, a nuanced, political subtlety, but some of us find comfort and solace in nuance and fine points.
On the other hand, the Democrats are up against someone whose only tool is a sledgehammer, so subtlety and nuance probably won't matter. More's the pity for the nation.
14
Yes, the GOP was on the warpath to MAGA long before an orange-haired bankrupt became their chosen symbol. However, in earlier generations, brave people like Joseph Welch, Eric Severeid, and Walter Cronkite stood up to bullies such as Joe McCarthy and William Westmoreland's war machine. There were people in the media such as Murrow who served as the people's tribune, who loudly advocated for a future not dictated by fear (the Red Scare neatly reprised today as the Muslim Scare) and loathing (take your pick among Patrice Lamumba, Cesar Chavez, or, later, Nelson Mandela).
One issue today is that the media do not have as firm a pedestal as they did 50 years ago. Just as the GOP has slid miles to the right only to point out to the public how far to the left of them the Democrats are, those who serve the GOP and in turn are served by that party have created a "news" media that exists in a space unthinkable 50 years ago.
Conflating propaganda machines with news cheapens the news, which could very well be the point. When one can find copious evidence of falsehoods being reported with a straight face (or, more likely, accompanied by a water torture of outrage), it's hard not to indict the entire media as a bunch of lying manipulators. And the very existence of "conservative" news allows the perspective-challenged to define mainstream news as "leftist."
I rue that these days no one has been deputized to ask, as Joseph Welch once was, "At long last, have you no sense of decency?"
13
If the economy remains/seems strong and the plutocrats and big-agri, pharma, defense and extractive industries keep their support for Trump we are still in big trouble.
Too much media, voter suppression and hopelessness among the disenfranchised present a formidable barrier to overcome
to gain the 'for the people, of the people, by the people' ideal we aspire to.
1
Our far right congressman recently decried against "socialism". So I asked him why he wants to get rid of the Veterans Administration and with what he'd replace it. Crickets.
VA facilities are owned by the government, the doctors are employed by the government, etc. Yet veterans with whom I've spoken who've used the VA seem to like it. Imagine that.
17
"Will we get coverage of actual policy proposals, as opposed to horse-race analysis that only asks how those proposals seem to be playing?"
In covering the women candidates the Times has been doing something kind of in between. They talk about the sexism in how the women are portrayed, what they are up against in terms of public perception and hardly ever talk about their policy positions on about anything.
7
What Democrats should say about Republicans is that they are anti-democracy. They are running roughshod over our Constitution to stay in power. They gerrymander, suppress votes, steal Supreme Court seats, accept large sums of dark money to get elected, and so on. Democrats' slogan for 2020 should be: "You can't have fair policies unless you elect a fair government."
34
Bravo!
1
None of what you said is true.
Yes! This is the way it is and the media is a willing participant. After all, it’s all really about the cash. Corporations reign.
Currently, it is a great laugh to believe that Democrats will correct all the ills. That is simply impossible. It will take eons, even with every one on their best behavior, which is just one more impossibility.
The fundamental problem is that our system of government does not work. The distortion in representation is decidedly in favor of our rural population, who do not have a clue.
13
Today's GOP is the John Birch Society fully realized. For proof, just read the description and history of that radically right-wing society. William F Buckley recognized the danger it posed within the former GOP and fought it. Alas, to no avail. You want extreme, you vote Republican. Tragically, far too many Americans appear to have succumbed to the propaganda machine. We'll find out in November 2020 whether the number is fatal. And while I too wish for the media to vigorously uphold truth and call out lies, that will only resonate with the sliver in the middle. Those who support Trump are clearly impervious to fact and reason. That thin sliver will determine our fate, just as it did in 2016. A third party candidate on the left of center this time will likely do us in.
11
It has always been so. In 1860 every one knew if they elected Lincoln there would be a Civil War. They did and there was. Should have voted Democratic and the Republicans would have gone the way of the Whigs.
I am not sure what a'moderate' is in the current climate of the US. Warren and Sanders for example are only arguing for levelling the playing field tilted by Republicans, special interests and Trump. If the electorate cannot see that, then I pity the US.
18
Going back to Louis Blanc in the 1830s, socialism meant that those in need should receive what is needed, and those with the means to help should provide what is needed by those in need. In 1870 Marx adopted the phrase as follows: "to each according to need, from each according to ability."
Every major religion has espoused this socialist ethic of sharing for over two thousand years. I can't see how one could take the Sermon on the Mount seriously and not endorse socialism thus defined. The selfish rich man has no chance of entering the kingdom of God. Those who claim to take the Bible seriously should look it up.
Of course, Mr. Trump and the evangelists who support him do not follow this socialist moral insight. Sharing is socialist, and sharing is what most of us teach our children in kindergarten. Each person pursuing their self interest is the single most important capitalist free market value, and this is against the socialist ideal and against what we teach our children in kindergarten. Somehow selfishness is supposed to lead to the best of all possible worlds through the magical guidance of some hidden hand of the market. Do they think that God's idea is the magic of a hidden hand so that goodness trickles down to the needy?
Those with the ability to do so should help those in need, and a just and decent society must provide the structure for them to do this.
Make America Great:
Share with those in need.
Don't rely on the magic of greed.
25
If God permitted Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest man and at the same time made 10,000 homeless on the streets of Los Angeles, who are we mere mortals to challenge it much less interfere?
1
@Che Beauchard Wasn't there something about teaching a man to fish?
You are 100% correct in your analysis. You left out one very important part of the republicans ATACK on democracies. That would be the HUGE industrial complex that feeds them money, and pushes deregulation.
3
Socialism, in this country, only kicks in if one has managed to survive until retirement age or has become disabled. At that point, if one has not saved(invested) for the ‘golden years’ one can anticipate a life of penury and probably a final scene involving a Medicaid financed stay in one of the abominable and ubiquitous for profit nursing homes in which one will suffer untold horrors and degradations. When the Republicans ask who will pay for improvements to the safety net, the answer should be millions have already paid with shortened lives and suffering that the well-off can never understand. The list of indignities that New Gilded Age kleptocrats will never understand includes sending one’s child to an underfunded, unequal school; scraping together enough money to avert a minor disaster, spending half one’s income on rent, not being able to afford child or health care; being stuck in a job that will likely result in the retirement mentioned above. Every time I hear some super-patriot go on and on about the greatest, wealthiest, most powerful country in history, I wonder, do ordinary people buy it to make themselves ‘feel’ better or because they lack the memory or the imagination to picture the promise of what this country once represented.
25
Sadly, given the low IQ of the American public in general, I fear that soundbites and shallow "news" from social media are all that will be heard - or remembered - in the next election cycle, effectively cementing the Republican stranglehold on our would-be democracy for generations to come (which has already begun on the Supreme Court).
Thanks to Hollywood, video games and TV, most people don't seem to care about anything as much as mindless "entertainment." That's "consumer culture" for you! We shall reap what we sow.
14
"They want America to be more like Denmark, not more like Venezuela."
Unfortunately, as a neighbor from Denmark pointed out, Denmark is leaning towards the current American model of corporations owning the government.
3
I have long thought that the Dems ought to be calling out the Republican party for what it is. Mr. Krugman's piece here would serve well as a blueprint to achieve this. Democratic candidates should be schooled in the transgressions of the Republican party and prepared to counterattack with vigor. I attribute the fact that they are not primed to counterattack effectively to an insufficiency of anger, for if they were sufficiently angry, they would figure out how to do it.
12
My father once told me when I was just becoming a man in the late 1960s early 70s, "When the revolution comes, it won't come from the left. It will come from the right. And when it does, watch out, because those people are mean." He always was a bit of a prophet and man ahead of his time. God bless you Dad.
62
What I don't like is the binary argument that says you must be one or the other.
I don't have to be a democrat to recognize that the republican party is organized crime. I don't have to be a democrat to want to see Trump held to account for his obvious crimes. And I don't have to be a republican to think that political correctness is out of control or that MeToo is probably doing more harm than good...
I'm anti-republican and vote democrat for purely pragmatic reasons... there is both a far-left and a far-right but one is mostly just annoying, the other is often dangerous. Being anti-republican at this point is common sense.
But I'm not a democrat.
4
@J I think the majority of Americans agree with you but we have no other choice. Third party time?
A recent podcast I listen to (The Weeds I think) explored the opinions held in Tennessee, who did not take the medicaid expansion and Kentucky. There were opinions held in Tennessee of citizens that would have benefited from the medicaid expansion but did not want it because they felt that too many African Americans and Latinos would benefit from it. We are not dealing with some morphed idea of socialism and capitalism, we as a country are still dealing with race as a primary driver of social policy. If the American people are still hung up about what their African American neighbor is getting then this country will never have a better social safety net, and nor will it deserve one.
17
Trump is a one man socialist party. He wants to control all aspects of the economy so that it jumps to his tune.
What made traditional socialism scary to the ruling class was its advocacy for the working class. Fear of the majority has driven the Republicans to portray the Dems as socialist but themselves as the friend of the worker. What a bait and switch.
Democracies tend to progress towards what is best for the majority. The Reps. the party of anti-democracy, sow anger towards all the safety nets, like SS, healthcare, education grants, welfare, not because they cost money but because they empower the majority. To be an American individual, the aspiration of all its people, does not mean going it alone. it means sharing the cost of opportunity.
8
Bernie or Elizabeth Warren- please let's take back the sanity --instead of the rich boys club- I have been there --it's a joke- these two people have it exactly correct, along with Krugman- I have witnessed the .001 and they just laugh at the people who don't have a latter that they were born on the top rung- I am serious they just laugh at anybody who doesn't have their money- it is a joke- I have been there- it is a sad joke-- because they just laugh at all the people they think that are, somehow trying to make this country better-the way it is- it is just fine with them-nobody really understands the real wealth that this group has-
4
The GOP is not leaning farther right. The GOP is leaning farther WHITE. This is not about socialism. It is almost entirely about race. The 2020 election could be the first election where the GOP finally hangs out the sign FOR WHITES ONLY.
10
Maybe Americans should read the new UN list of the Happiest Countries in the World - the Nordic countries are in there with Canada, New Zealand and guess what the US did not even make the top 10. America is a land of anger and venom and the elite who manipulate and make sure it stays that way. I laugh at this business of the Populist Movement it is the elite with a different name. Since when is Trump,. Mitch, Murdoch that stoke that pot not the elite. I fall down laughing it is the same bunch, but they make like they care about the people what a joke. I notice today for the past two months Unemployment applications are increasing guess what folks the good times are coming to an end. But, don't worry the Populists of the Trumps will demand more tax cuts. He has been bankrupt four times and makes his money by stiffing everyone else. Lower the interest rates he screams - did your credit card company lower your rates. The US economy has hit the point where you can't use one credit card to pay the other month min. they are all tapped out. Jim Trautman
4
Republicans are constantly smearing Democrats who endorse an *enlightened capitalism* as "socialists."
And those Democrats never push back! Canada and the UK are not "socialist." They are *capitalist* countries with the good sense to have some safety nets. America has a tradition of that also, otherwise there would be no such thing as Social Security or Medicare. Are the Republicans advocating abolition of Social Security and Medicare? Personally I think the Democrats should give the Republicans a taste of their own medicine and charge the GOP with the desire to abolish Social Security and Medicare altogether. Play offense and put the GOP in the defensive, for heaven's sake.
Also: Reagan tried to destroy the unions. Instead of defending unions, the Democrats abandoned them (in favor of the yuppies). That leaves the unions - who should be natural allies of the Democrats - in limbo. For heaven's sake, make common cause with the unions!
8
Socialism is the current Republican scare word intended to frighten people. Harry Truman brought this up in a speech on October 10th, 1952: "Socialism is a scareword they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years. Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called social security. Socialism is what they called farm price supports. Socialism is what they called bank deposit insurance. Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people."
Think about that last sentence. "Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people." Isn't that what we want from our government - a helping hand? I do not know Americans who want handouts. I do know many who want our government to support us as we work to care for our families and our communities. Don't make it more difficult to succeed. Don't make it tougher to protect the only planet we have.
14
@RP
Brilliant post, please send it to all the candidates
1
The irony here is that Trump campaigned on a platform of class struggle. If not socialist, then certainly Marxist. Didn't we here him scream something like: Power to the people; down with the ruling class; end imperial America? With barely a stretch, that’s what I heard from Trump’s inaugural address, which only repeated themes from the campaign speeches that got him “elected”, thanks to that (statistically improbable) ballpark full of people from those three states.
2
1. To focus on the hoary definition of socialism as government/public ownership of means of production is to miss the essential element of socialism that stands forth after the Soviet catastrophe.
This is the substantial equalization of income and wealth in a largely unregulated economy: Market Socialism. For example, the aim could be a high/low income ration of 10:1, not 1,000,000:1, between the highest incomes and the lowest. Or 5:1. Or 2:1.
The revolutionary shift would be effected through number changes in the IRS tax tables. And that's all.
No bureaucracy, no thousand programs to give this or that group 5% more (which typically doesn't work), no politicos devastating the usefulness of the market by seizing from here and giving to there (ie, giving to my district/state).
This is the real alternative to capitalism and to the do-gooder capitalism called "social democracy".
2. Trump's throwing his weight around is not fascism or anything close. When we have a fascist threat, you'll know it.
Hundreds of thousands of fascists will clash in the streets with hundreds of thousands of leftists. The battle will be over socialism; one can hope that it is over Market Socialism and not the monster of central command and control.
Nothing like that is going on. Nowhere is it nascent.
Don't worry about what isn't happening. Worry about what quite possibly will happen, some years down the road.
3
The term Socialism has got to be buried. Get rid of the labels such as right wing, left wing, liberal, conservative, etc. Our country is experiencing a great divide djt created and won him this seat of power, the 'them vs us'. These labels are open to subjective interperation and only add to this divide.
It is imperative that these candidates use vocabulary that speaks to the collective, all Americans. It is impertive that they demonstrate civility when debating.
The art of selling anything starts with product knowledge and remembering.... we are emotional consumers.
3
Free markets are self-regulating. That you don’t like the outcome does not justify government meddling in the economy. Like nature, capitalism will produce winners and losers. Some miraculously so, many catastrophically so. We need to accept the facts that regulated capitalism is no longer capitalism and that no one is guaranteed a safe, comfortable, enjoyable life. My parents could not afford college so I didn’t belong there. It meant enlisting where my choice of career was superseded by the needs of the service. That led to a low pay job upon being discharged. That’s how life works. Only a select few get to live the life they choose.
"No one is guaranteed a safe, comfortable, enjoyable life." I am sorry you feel this way.
I dream of the day that no American, or for that matter no human being, feels that way.
10
@Robert C. Hinkley
What you abhor is simply adulthood. We have become such a lightweight population of snowflakes that we no longer reflect a nation that expanded westward, built the transcontinental railroad, won not one but two world wars and put a man on the moon.
1
Trumpism has exposed the GOP for what it really believes in. Not keeping government out of our personal lives. Not national security. Not fiscal balance. Not most of the Constitution. In fact, I no longer think of them as a political party since they do not want to legislate except in two areas: (1) making the rich even richer; (2) feeding hatreds and grievances involving race.
10
You're right about mainstream media's role. It all depends on semantics, headlines and sound bites. Most people do not read analyses or find other resources that are more critical.
4
I have to say that as a lifetime registered Republican, I am aghast at what has happened to my party. I’m a Reagan Republican from the 1980’s. But the Republican Party today has very little semblance to the one I joined over 35 years ago. It’s as if the evangelical hard nosed conservatives have usurped my party for their nefarious political purposes. For the first time in my life I am seriously considering changing my party affiliation. I used to think I could change the party from within but my party has deserted me. So perhaps it’s time I deserted my party.
11
@Mike L Run, don't walk. I admittedly love my political drama, but I think your soul is at stake. Seriously.
A better question is how so few got to own the means of production? In no society before the 16th century, the means of production (mostly land then) were monopolized to the extent they are today. The creation of disposable wage labor requires precisely the expropriation and expulsion from their land of millions of peasants. Remember the enclosure in England’s and what goes on in vast areas of the so called third world today
1
Most wealthy countries have mixed economies of one sort or another. They are capitalist in that they have markets, engage in trade, encourage investment, offer significant rewards to their most creative and hardest-working citizens and encourage competition and wealth accumulation by individuals. This works best in a system of laws, regulations and taxation to which all citizens are subject.
There is, however, nothing about capitalism that makes fair distribution of wealth inevitable. In fact history shows a tight correlation between unregulated capitalism (call it "free-market") and very unbalanced wealth distribution leading to widespread unhappiness, social unrest and war.
For this reason, every successful capitalist economy requires a sizable dose of what is commonly called "socialism", resulting in the social state and characterized by rules, laws, and tax schemes intended to distribute wealth fairly and thus encourage and maintain social harmony.
For a society to be successful there must be a proper balance between wealth creation and wealth distribution. When these are out of whack, things begin to fall apart, and fellow citizens learn to hate one another. When things work well, there is a sense of common purpose and our lives have meaning.
Under Trump and McConnell we are way out of whack: too much "free-market", not enough socialism. We can all vote to change this. Real 1-person/1-vote democracy is the key.
14
The distribution of wealth isn’t supposed to be balanced nor equitable because outside of the eyes of the law, we aren’t all equal. We differ in competence, intelligence, motivation, perseverance, attitude, education, ambition, curiosity, personality, pedigree and more. Since the input isn’t equal neither will the outcomes be so.
1
Oh, and opportunity. You think everyone has equal opportunity?
1
@G
Should students in NYC public schools, whose parents pay taxes approximately 1/8th to 11/0th those of Long Island and Westchester really expect schools, teachers, programs and facilities as good as those kids, whose parents HAVE earned it can expect? Of course not. I grew up in Queens in the 1970’s. What quality could I have expected?
1
Grief stricken, my wife and I wept upon seeing that our so-called president had won the electoral college. We feared a dysfunctional, calamitous presidency. It has turned out even worse than we feared. Thanks to spineless republicans who will do nothing to reign in our so-called president, they have become enablers who do nothing to protect our democratic institutions and combat foreign interference in our elections. republicans want to brand Democrats as "Socialists" because we believe in freedom of the press, racial equality, tolerance, that healthcare and education are fundamental human rights and that human-induced climate change is an urgent problem. If that's makes us "Socialists", then by all means, count me in as a Socialist. It would be a hoot if the 2020 Democratic Presidential slogan were to be, "Make America Great Again".
16
Just because Paul Krugman and you and I can see it, doesn't mean that the bulk of the population will. Just recently in Australia subtle but effective manipulation on social media and the Murdoch media (with assistance by a Trump-lite multi-millionaire) distorted people's perceptions, particularly with unbalanced positive and negative coverage of the political parties.
Hard to tell how much was truly independent of party backroom operators. Definitely most, but I doubt it all was. And there are foreign powers keen to muddy US elections.
3
Why be so scared of being called socialists? The logical conclusion of many of the candidates proposals is toward true socialism, not simply progressive policies rooted in liberal politics over civil rights or separation of church and state but rather economic restructuring of the economy. Attacking the economic free market pro-capitalism message of the GOPis playing well with younger voters in particular, is what really scares you Mr. Krugman that the real agenda is much closer to Chavism than you would like to admit? Read the party platform of the Socialist Democratic Party rather than projecting onto it what you wish it were, it calls for real Socialism, why be afraid of it? Perhaps the recent events in Venezuela are just too terrifying, given what those policies did to one of the formerly richest countries in the Americas...
3
@michaelf
Now...why did Venezuela turn to socialism? (It never was truly "Socialism" under Chaves.)
Now...why did this current version fail too?
BOTH were corrupt, kleptocratic and riven by outside influences. (look'n at you 'merica)
Any *ism* is only as good as those that control the levers and those ruled under it. Any *ism* can fail and has. (warning lights flashing and alarms going off 'merica...)
1
Thank you, Mr. Krugman.
The media could start by refusing to refer to the idea of a single-payer healthcare system as ‘extreme’, ‘fringe’ or ‘left wing’. In fact, single-payer is the norm is many (if not most) developed nations in the world. There is nothing radical about a system that insured all citizens receive a basic level of care at reasonable cost.
What IS radical is our profit-driven system that deprives millions of the ability to see a doctor or get needed medications; costs the country almost twice as much as care in other countries with poorer outcomes; and is the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in our country.
28
The coming election will be about which voters make it to the polls.
Trump has his base. They're unpersuadable. The goal is not to energize them.
On the Democratic side, the goal is to generate excitement. That requires a kind of star quality only a few of the candidates possess. It looks like the ones that are the natural stars are flawed in other ways.
So far, the strategy of picking away at Trump's legal and ethical issues while working on big issues, principally health care, makes sense.
Give Trump supporters a slightly sickening feeling and fill Democrats with hope. That will shape the vote totals in the right way.
3
I retired last year and moved to Spain from Alaska. Obviously I do not qualify for healthcare since I never contributed to the system, but I did get private health insurance: for me and my wife we pay 120 euros per month, with no deductible, if we had stayed in Alaska we would have paid 2,000 per month with 1,500 deductible.
Can we see in the US that our system just doesn’t work.
55
Thank you for this. It’s so tiresome when the press repeats the untrue socialism charge. The educated among us understand Scandinavia is a capitalist economy with a strong social safety net. But a lot of Americans don’t understand that their taxes could pay for a medical system that negotiates lower prices for drugs, as Europe does. Rather than pay inflated drug prices for the profits of drug companies. This time, please explain to voters, in clear language, what their choices will mean. So that we don’t have another election where poor Americans vote against their best interests.
23
How can Americans recognize a socialist?They, Americans, have been gaslighted by insurance companies and big pharma. The Us is 50 to 70 years behind other industrialized nations. Bernie only had 45 seconds but he said that even if your taxes are raised it will cost you less than half you pay out of pocket for health care. Paul, explain this to the doubters. The amount you will pay in taxes is nothing compared to what you pay for health insurance, not to mention the $5,000 deductible you pay once you enter the hospital. We in Canada don't notice the taxes but we know we can go to the hospital at any time without the risk of going bankrupt. But Americans hate taxes more than they value their right to medical care. The founding fathers rebelled against England because they didn't want to pay taxes not because they suffered any physical threat. We in other advanced countries both laugh and feel sorry for you for denying yourselves universal health care.
80
The means of production of about 40% of the US economy is already controlled by the government.
Social Security/Retirement - 100% government controlled.
Medicare/Healthcare - 100% government controlled.
Medicaid/Healthcare - 100% government controlled.
First Class Mail Delivery - 100% government controlled.
K-12 Education - 95% government controlled.
Higher Education - 80% government controlled.
Public Employee Retirement - 90% government controlled.
Public Safety - 100% government controlled.
SNAP/Food - 100% government controlled.
Home Mortgage guarantees - 85% government controlled.
Civilian Air Traffic Control - 100% government controlled.
Passenger Rail - ~95% government controlled.
City Buses, light rail, subways - ~95% government controlled.
Roads, streets, highways - ~95% government controlled.
The balance of the economy that the government does not control outright, it heavily regulates. From banking to telecommunications, to food/agriculture, to medicine to law, to real estate, the government has hundreds of thousands of pages of regulations.
Socialism? We are already 1/2 way there.
All that is left is a little push by Krugman and the Democrats to make us into Venezuela or Cuba.
1
Care to list one, just one, means of production?
@Baron95
Socialism is defined as “any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.”
Not one of the things you mention is a “means of production or distribution of goods.”
Further, several of the items you mention actually help capitalism and private profits; for example, guaranteeing home loans keeps banks from losing money if the mortgage owner defaults, retirement funds keep seniors buying things which helps maintain demand for goods and services.
A good read for you would be Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense.” There he explains what people have a right to expect from their government.
I am a Safety Net Socialist.
I would like the government to provide:
Free Education up to four years of college/Trade School.
Free Health Care.
Housing for the Homeless.
A complete revision of the "Lack of" Justice System.
A national draft for Public Service of all 18 - 20 years olds,
where anyone healthy enough must serve.
But what I don't want the Federal Government doing is:
Telling the States/Citizens what to do in violation of the
9th and 10th Amendments.
5
“Which goes to show the extent to which Republican extremism has been accepted simply as a fact of life, barely worth mentioning.”
Yep, that’s what the American media have done. I would argue that the problem is the reporters are too young and have no knowledge of history, let alone its nuances. In any case, thank you, mainstream media, for legitimizing a radical insurgency that calls itself “conservative,” and which you call “conservative,“ too. As the republic falls, to be be replaced by that radical insurgency, we can thank the American media for its contribution to the illiteracy, about history, of the American people. Good night and good luck. We’re going to need it.
16
Professor,
In a previous op-ed about Elizabeth Warren, one commenter stated she was a dangerous "socialist" and in my reply I asked him to cite one instance where Warren or any of the Democratic hopefuls stated that they favored the government taking over the means of production.
I did receive a response from another individual, who told me I needed to wake up, because that is exactly what he and the other person actually believe is the Democratic agenda.
Granted that is only two people, but I am sure they represent a large portion of the American electorate who believe the Democrats are "Real Socialists."
Finally, the fact that you felt the need to write an op-ed defining true socialism pretty much sums up the problems facing the Democrats, who have yet to demonstrate they can win any "Message War" against the GOP.
6
Thanks to Krugman for link to op ed “What Happened to America’s Political Center of Gravity?”
It says “The Republican Party leans much farther right than most traditional conservative parties in Western Europe and Canada.”
And could add, leans further right than many Republicans in our own past generations. 'We need this comparison constantly to see our politics more clearly.
Our legalized big money in our politics, and the rise of FOX News, have distorted our definitions of left/right/center.
Any reduction in excessive/exploitive private profit is simply labeled big govt-left wing--anti American interference into private property.
This has not been properly challenged by Dems. They and main media have been on the defensive.
But all the benefits to citizens of social democracy do entail SOME reduction in excessive private profit. This is what the GOP can't stand at all. Dems must compete with GOP for mega donor money to run for office.
It is rarely brought up that other social democratic countries are capitalist systems with private profit. Compared with the US govt, their govts have more respect for the average citizen's rights. The most obvious example---generations of affordble health care regardless of income, which we still haven't achieved.
11
America's business leadership has sold its soul to a crook for a tax cut and a cut in regulations that ultimately harm them as much as everyone else. Perhaps it's in the DNA of all business leaders the willingness to exploit others for their own gain but it sure seems a lot like what happened in Germany enabling the rise of the hate that nearly destroyed the world.
On the other hand it sure seems like a willingness by a lot of Americans to accept just about anything so long as their stock portfolio is going up and home values rising.
22
I bet that most trump supporters do not have a portafolio nor do they understand what it is.
Finally, a clarifying voice on political labels. Words have definitions. What a concept. Now we can start to sort out why they have different meanings to people. Perhaps then we can move beyond a two-party system to better represent America to our own benefit and better project our ideals to a diverse world.
6
The fact that the debates weren't interested in questions about why would the candidates want a Medicare for all, when the Medicaid program, that serves 75 million, healthcare for lower income, middle income with lots of children, and nursing home recipients, plus immigrants who are undocumented, is set to run out of enough money to pay all the bills in less than 3 years. So, how is federal government going to give free healthcare to 330 plus million of those living in this country, when it hasn't shored up the Medicaid program? Don't people realize, that the U S. Treasury runs out of money in September, and we have serious financial issues with all of our debt, etc.? Who is going to continue to buy our debt growing past $22 trillion, and it is will cost $400 billion in interest by the end of the year, more or less, sooner, or later, I mean, we only pay interest on the debt, not principal, and we have promised over $30 trillion in underfunded entitlement programs, hello, America?!!!
3
How are *we* (not ‘the government) going to pay for it? Easy....
We take all that money we give to insurance companies in premiums and co-pays every month, put half of it back into a single-payer system, and keep the rest for ourselves!
7
Maybe Trump should not have given away all that money to the ultra rich and the big corporations with the last tax cut. Do not fall for their propaganda- they want the little people to pay for everything and receive nothing in return.
3
Thank you again, Dr Krugman, for saying something that needs to be said, as many times as necessary. The right's constant abuse of language is one of its principal tools. They attempt to turn "partisan," for example, into some kind of pejorative, as if people should just blandly treat the cruelty and unscrupulous pursuit of power that has become orthodoxy for Trumpublicans as something that is just to be accepted. This is nothing new. The far right of the 1950s was just as reckless and paranoid in its hyperbole, but no one after McCarthy believed it could be anything but the politics of the fringe.
17
As a product of the Berkeley sixties, it's been enheartening to see the mass enthusiasm for Bernie Sanders. While the GOP can be counted to hurl accusations of socialism!, even against Biden, many, many millions don't have the knee-jerk emotional fear of ideology labels. But it's likely that the right wing will end up manufacturing left wing violence "incidents" to raise the fear factor.
5
Now that I work from home, I have the news on most of the time, and today I was pondering the Supreme Court's toss of the census question and the reaction of the Republicans--Trump even suggesting that the printing of the census forms be delayed until the case is settled. Obviously, adding the "citizen" question is urgent only because it's expected to reduce the number of Democratic-leaning voters in 2020, and the Republicans are desperate for any trick to increase their odds, as they're less and less capable of winning honestly. The right-biased Electoral College may not be enough to squeeze the current POTUS back into office, so elaborate gerrymandering and more Russian rumors will probably be in the works. (Too bad the Democrats' sinister "dark state" is a myth--or as Stephen Colbert has noted, if there is one, it's so incompetent that it's got its head stuck in a bucket.)
10
@Carol Robinson
Gerrymandering for president isn't possible, although the constitution tilts the senate and electoral college to the rural red states. One way to solve the problem is to double or triple the number of congressional districts. Smaller bins are harder to manipulate and would increase the influence of the larger states. This could be done by Congress, since the number of representatives is limited by statute.
An undercount would tend to shift congressional seats away from Texas, NY, and California and is one of the few means to rig presidential elections.
2
Presidential debates could turn out to be a contest between Trump and his handlers coming up with new and amazing falsehoods vs the Democratic candidate and handles trying to anticipate the next falsehood and have a ready counter.
Maybe the Democratic candidate should bring along small poster boards that read:
"Mr. Trump will lie that...
The truth is that..."
And pull out the right poster for each rebuttal. Probably impractical.
9
By 2020 election time the Washington Post fact checkers will probably have a documented tally of president Trump's public falsifications in the neighborhood of 20,000. Since their was no discernible media reaction when he passed 10,000, I suspect that hitting the 20,000 mark will not make much of a stir.
C'mon, let Trump be Trump.
4
Americans of all persuasions will simply have to decide if they want to educate themselves better about the world they live in or if they want to perpetuate the fantasy that Trump and the GOP have latched onto and understand that the labels that the GOP uses to demonize others is far from any understanding needed.
Trump's politics and actions are like knocking out a wall in our house called America, claiming he has let in new air and that Americans don't use doorknobs anyway. Many people seem to agree that like the view and the fresh air but, come winter, they will have doubts to the changes they have allowed, which is quite different from what the original builders hoped for.
Winter *is* coming.
12
I recently noted in the Australian election that media coverage of the previous 6 years of conservative rule was all but non-existent...it mainly focused on the proposals that the two main parties were providing. This infuriated me since it is effectively taking the opposite route to "judge by what people do (or have done), not by what they say".
The Australian conservative party's (called the Liberals ironically) past six year were a farce of governance. Why would anybody vote for them?
But all we heard from the media were the golden promises of what they were going to do in the future...
6
Socialism is the form of government where the private ownership of the means of production is still permitted, but the government controls the businesses, by determining what and how they can produce. The central government plans. It is a transition between a market economy and communism, where the people [the government] own the means of production and where "from each according to his ability and to each according to his need" redistribution.
@ebmem No. You're wrong. A socialist system involves public ownership and control of the means of the production; government doesn't merely plan.
You're right that socialism is a stage between a capitalist economy and a communist society, but under communism, there is no government.
8
Or try it is a step in moving, “from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom.”
The prob with Trumpists and libertarians alike: they think that not only is the equal right to sleep under bridges the same as equal rights, but they think that the right to buy as much as you think you can afford is freedom.
And they get quite tetchy when anybody says otherwise.
7
@ebmemTry reading up on the Nordic countries. What exactly is the US you think corporations operate. Sorry the Nordic countries are social democracy which is what is being discussed. People own and companies exist, but strange as it may seem the government tires to make a level playing field meaning where decent wages are paid, unions exist (funny how businesses and corporation exit in groups and Americans see no problem, but workers organizing for better working conditions and how about health or pensions is seen as being evil.) The idea that one has power on their own and the boss will give you because he is nice is a joke. In the Nordic countries with their rich economy it is still based on the market. Your comment sounds like someone on FOX put out. By the way how are things working out in this wonderful system in the US. Jim Trautman
Go back just 10 years. Democrats have completely reversed their campaign platform. Clinton and Obama supported DOMA, border enforcement, the idea that abortions should be legal but rare, and took stances that they thought middle ground could be achieved through bipartisan compromises. No Longer is that acceptable.
Over 70% of the population is against unlimited access to abortion, are happy with their healthcare, are optimistic about the economy we are currently enjoying, and are paying less income taxes. Wages are increasing faster than inflation, and unemployment is at 50 year lows. Now comes the wrecking ball.
Democrats use the words free, and in the next sentence say increase taxes and redistribute wealth. Free healthcare, free college, free childcare, cancel student loan debt, reparations, decriminalize illegal boarder entry, living wages for all. Don’t forget revamping our economy based on climate change. The list is much longer. The cost are unfathomable. Krugman is trying to use the Democrat Socialist comparison. Check out their economies compared to ours. None of them are based in a Democratic Socialist country. There is a reason why.
2
@Jay Correct - release the "Animal spirits" and capital flows freely. Harp incessantly about confiscation and capital sits it out. The rest follows from that.
So you prefer an authoritarian state under several feet of ocean water? Because the alternative sounds kind of...expensive??
I think many thoughtful people have known about the state of the GOP for years, but have done nothing about it except complain and prognosticate. What America needs more than ever are the overwhelming protests and outrage that are happening in Hong Kong right now. That is what a democracy is really about. The rest is just lip service.
35
@James R Dupakk
I don’t know what the difference is, but while the protests for civil rights and anti Vietnam in the 60’s made a big difference, the more recent ones such as the after inauguration one, Occupy Wall Street, don’t seem to have much, if any, effect.
1
Love to join a protest. I live in California though. I can protest here but is that really valuable use if time and energy. Probably better to work overtime and donate more.
I agree it’s wrong but our demands also must be direct and lack a nebulous agenda.
I reject the terms Socialist, Liberal, Progressive and Conservative. All these labels and terms are use withoud definition and are used as hooks onto which disconnected ideas are affixed.
.
Furthermore, I have become disenchanted with Prof. Krugman's increasingly crude discussions of issues - economic, social, and political. I have no doubt of his ability to discuss economics intelligently, but he as decided not to exercise that ability.
.
I am as disgusted as Krugman is with Mr. Trump and his administrantion. However, adding crude responses to other people who voice differences with Krugman on a range of issues does not add to the civil discourse.
1
Too bad we cannot seem to have a civil discourse. But maybe its because we cannot seem to compromise either - at all. That appears to be the republicans’ game. Democrats would, i think, like to compromise but the republicans’ game is a dying patriarchy gladiator match where they see victory only in the opponents death. So now in the age of Mitch McConnell it’s outright ideological war.
16
I believe the question we're facing is the preservation and continuation of democratic government in the United States. That's something the Republican party doesn't believe in and hasn't for some time. The preservation of democracy will require many things, chief among them the recognition that it is under threat. It's not clear that the mainstream press understands this. Nor is it clear that either the leadership of the Democratic party or its the members of its various factions do.
Control of the courts is central to the Republican project and has been since the 1970's. It was true when enough people on the left abandoned Gore for Nader to allow Bush to make multiple appointments to the bench. It was true when the people who found Hillary unlikable just couldn't bring themselves to vote for her. It will be true if and when enough people who don't like whoever the Democrats nominate this time don't turn out to vote.
That raises an interesting (though not very difficult) question; what's more important, preserving our form of government and the individual freedom that (to varying degrees) comes with it, or voting for someone you will never actually know but still feel you need to "like?"
12
@blueingreen66: Amen!
The stakes were incredibly high in 2016, and the inanity that is "the need to like" is largely what got us Trump, and most who succumbed to it did not like Trump, but just couldn't bring themselves to vote for Hillary.
Well, the stakes keep getting higher. I truly fear for the continuing existence of the American Experiment. Preserving the republic we've been given requires doing the adult thing, and picking "the lesser of two evils" when you feel that's what you're presented with. Doing otherwise is an abdication of civic duty. This is no time for protest votes, either.
12
@guyslp No protest vote here - but definitely no vote for anyone who wants to remake the US in the image of European social democracy. Prefer federal enumerated powers - the expectation / demand that they do those things exceptionally well, and leave the experimentation to the states which still permits the public to vote with their feet.
@Todd Stultz
I don't know how old you are but I'm old enough to remember when their was a liberal consensus in this country around the importance of labor, public education, civil rights (in the main), good public infrastructure, responsible business regulation fair(er) taxation and fiscal discipline. That made us much more like Europe than we are now. So I don't want us to become Europe. I'll take becoming what we were.
16
I may not vote for Bernie is an upcoming primary, but he is essential to this process and acts as the conscience of the Democratic Party. He sets the standard of our debates. He is the absolute measure of the direction in which America needs to move. He's keeping the debate honest and real.
13
Warren is doing ok too with that.
1
Great article. I am an American that lives in Canada. Before anyone says anything I served three years in the Marines in the Vietnam War with an honorable discharge. Like living here. Have spent time in the Nordic countries. Mr. Trump pardon me for saying it lacks intelligence. He claimed why don't more people come from Norway to live in the US. Simple if they want to have a lower standard of living and less social services. Norway has a center/right coalition, but also has 30% electric cars, the largest investment fund from its oil and gas and is investing in green projects. A woman PM. Denmark just elected a new left government and earlier this year so did Sweden and Finland. The are social democratic countries which with their political system is more advanced because one party never has a majority so coalitions have to be formed. People vote because their vote counts and means something where even in Canada with its first past the post get 35% and you get a majority of the seats in the House of Commons. The Green Party is making headway, but the Nordic countries where there is more freedom and they are above the US on happyness scale. Suicide rates in the US are skyrocketing and the reason Americans are not happy people. Sadly yes, we will hear about socialism from the Trump followers who have never read a book on it. They vote for Trump and the Republicans and get nothing, but an outlet to spew venom and racism. Will Americans wake up I doubt it. Jim Trautman
62
Oh the sad thing I have to contribute is that in my town in northern Hudson County, New Jersey, the Democratic Party embodies the thuggery that you describe: Teachers are forced to campaign for the mayor, businesses are coerced to buy tickets to his gala, and commissioners are silent when asked to explain positions lest they have the gaul to think for themselves.
America is out there waiting for decency, civics, and a new idea to bring it back and fill us with a sense of collective meaning.
Hope is not enough.
5
Hope is not enough. That should be America’s motto for these times.
The Press/Media doesn't write much about their culpability in the rise and election of Trump; indeed in their hunt for air time the repeating of so many GOP fear mongering tentacles since Richard Nixon days. It is up to the Mainstream Media to be more careful in the terms they use, in the implication of their headlines, and in the air/print time they give to Trump and the GOP. No more coverage of his rallies - if he says something newsworthy, just show that clip. He's outrageous for a reason; to get media time and attention. Shut him down.
46
It is always a delight to read Mr. Krugman's articles, his knowledge and passion for the truth is very refreshing. I admire his relentless pursuit in trying to give the US citizens a wider perspective in all political matters, so necessary when knowledge and truth seem to have been banned by the (now) leading party. I do hope his efforts have some (actually more!) effect. His article is excellent. Luckily in my country we now have a government with social democrats leading.
19
All 100% correct. Taken together with today's Supreme Court decision to allow partisan gerrymandering is a gift wrapped, complete with bow, present to democrats.
Even the least informed among us recognize the consequences of the logical conclusion of today's decision: what would happen if democrats decided, once in control, to exact the same consequences of what we now do, on us?
The average Fox watching working stiff understands the consequences of when the shoe wears the other foot. It's the reason why the rules governing super-majorities aren't challenged. It's the reason why Mr. Smith Goes to Washington inspired changes to the filibuster rules aren't challenged.
Today, the conservative wing of the Supreme Court overstepped their influence. They reversed one man one vote. Let Citizen's United hang. They laid bare the truth of today's republican party to their base: you don't count.
Talking about Achilles heels and not knowing you've (Oedipus) just laid down with you mother . . .
14
Just a thought about the use and misuse of words in politics. I was once a liberal, until the right redefined "liberal" to mean something equivalent to "communist". So now I am a "progressive" but not I fear for long. Milton Friedman's radical free market vision of economics improbably became known as "neoliberal". I suspect that a lot of people who hear "neoliberal" today think it means some flavor of "liberal" or maybe "progressive" rather than the Koch brothers.
Meanings change over time but when so many words come to mean their opposite in a short period of time something else is going on. I think Karl Rove's tactics of projecting your own greatest weakness onto your opponent, and of making your opponent's greatest strength his greatest weakness, may be at the root of it.
12
I am VERY tired of complaints about "socialism". In more sensible nations, people understand that some public services are provided by public agencies (e.g., water systems, sanitation systems, all local roads and 99% of inter-city roads/highways, courts, legal records, most public transit systems, most passenger RR trains, most airports, some public electric production and distribution (TVA anybody?), public schools and state universities, etc.) Let's stop demonizing "socialism", and discuss WHEN public operation of public services and energy production are best served publicly.
Andrew Biemiller
29
@Andrew Biemiller Most rational people would not consider normal public works / infrastructure "Socialism" Money flow to DC, back out to regions or municipalities may not be the most efficient way to do it, but that is another discussion.
Likewise, a reasonable subsistence level safety net is needed in a civil society.
Where the rhetoric falls down for many is the Left's slavish pursuit of equal outcomes (which we all know is not realistic given variances in work ethic, intellect, and personal preferences) as opposed to equal access to opportunity - the outcome isn't always measured in monetary terms or social strata insofar as what individuals define as success for themselves.
What do you call the SCOTUS 2010 ruling for corporate personhood and their money free speech? Call it socialism for the rich - certainly not the euphemism misleadingly named "Citizens United." Which party is silent on this? The GOP. Democratic Candidates in the debates are naming it. And as far as fascism is concerned - what do you call the false equivalency of New-Nazi protestors in Charlottesville with other protestors? What do you call eight years of trying to prove that Barrack Obama is not American born? What do you call the stoking of racism? And what do you call family separation policies at our border that have killed some children while leaving others in conditions worse than those most animals are in? And what do you call a president who ignores the Constitutional function of Congress when it comes to seeing a president's tax returns? Dear Paul - these are all illustrations of a government that looks a lot like fascism - and the "T" word - totalitarianism.
47
@1blueheron Some might call "Citizens United" the counterbalance for labor unions political activism.
@Todd Stultz Those that do would not know the language in the amendments passed in 20 states calling for the overturning of Citizens United. It also excludes money from Unions. I know because I led an amendment successfully in my city. Those that think so, need to read the proposals now passed and talk to people who voted them through in their state. Your comment is why it is important to build referendums at the grassroots level. It is a good educational process. Union money is also kept out of elections.
3
Lies, damn lies, statistics and Trump.
Just saying.
3
Good for you, Paul Krugman. You've correctly labeled the GOP as an extremist party with a protofascist vanguard directed by an oligarchy that buys running dogs from the Federalist Society to the endless think tanks (sic) that have defiled our national discourse. The next step is to disabuse ourselves of the notion that "our democracy" is threatened and recognize it is at best in extremis and very likely moribund. Rebuilding may not be possible within the confines and restraints established today.
10
The media will also - it already has - cover the democratic contenders based on personality - is he/she nice enough? Clinton and Biden)), fashion choices - boxers or briefs? (Bill Clinton), pajamas (Romney), diet - pork rinds?? - GHWB), and various false equivalencies. (All examples are real, and the list in endless.)
AND, as or more important, the democratic party has to be very very smart in who it nominates and how it campaigns. And what it really cares about.
2
Republicans can call Democrats socialist, and sometimes communist, because their own supporters are accepting of crazy talk.
If a Democrat were consistently to call them fascist, other Democrats would keep their distance, and the wild talker would lose near all support.
It isn't about what they say, or even about who says it, it is about the people listening. It is the "Hold My Beer" crowd, and what they like to see and hear.
6
I'm with Indianapolis "WeNeedModerates" who said, "The government should not own the means of production" and "Those who own the means of production should not own the government". That is a brilliant formulation. Three cheers for Indianapolis's "WeNeedModerates"! I hope the Democrats pick it up as part of their 2020 campaign.
5
In 1961, Ronald Reagan characterized “compulsory health insurance for senior citizens” as “from here a short step to all the rest of socialism.” Using the S word is not new among Republicans. But try to tell a senior we’re taking away their socialist health care and they’ll probably think you’re insane. Tell some conservative seniors that they’re receiving single payer government run insurance and they will argue with you that it isn’t true: “I paid for this when I was working.” Not really.
7
In Australia nearly everyone knows the slogan "socialise your losses and capitalise your gains" that criticises right-wing governments. That didn't quite get rid of the right-wing government here, which also tells strings of lies and silences critics, but it nearly did. I think the time is perfect to announce the engagement of Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Let us toast the threesome for a happy ever after future.
5
An honest analysis would concede that Medicare for all is socialist, as it entails a state takeover of a large portion (17.9%) of the U.S. economy.
@Mmm
That's incorrect. It is confusing and more education of the public is needed.
Socialized health care would mean government owning hospitals, clinics, medical facilities, and employing medical personnel--doctors, nurses, etc. Medicare-for-All is not socialized medicine because it does not have government own and control those things.
Medicare-for-All is a mechanism for financing and paying for patient's medical care using public funding and government as the payer. It's not a government take-over of the delivery of medical care.
I hope this helps you understand better.
2
@Mmm, wrong. It's public financing only; docs and hospitals are not taken over by the gov't. You apparently don't know how Medicare works now; do yourself a favor and learn.
Abolishing private health insurance and forcing everyone into Government run healthcare is not Socialism ??
A tax rate of 70% - 90% is not Socialism ??
The Green New Deal which has a guaranteed wage for every citizen is not Socialism ??
Bernie calls himself a Socialist and praises Communist dictators, yet he is not a Socialist ??
2
The only person I hear praising dictators, communist or otherwise, is Trump. He’s having a bromance with Kim (communist dictator), and a bromance with Putin (dictator). Could you cite some examples for you bold assertion?
1
@Michael You obviously are not getting Medicare. I'm pretty pleased with it as are all seniors I know.
You clearly have no clue what socialism is, do you. You seem to equate it with the USSR. Medicare for all does not provide government-run healthcare. Such a plan does not create government-owned and run hospitals, etc.
Also, in the US, the government would not own the means of production and, therefore, businesses. Instead, we allow big businesses to own the government through contributions to the politicians who write the regulations and the laws. That's GOP socialism.
I suggest you read something about it, rather than getting all your 'facts' from right-wing news sources that have ZERO interest in upsetting the status quo. Look who owns major television stations. In addition to Fox, owned by Rupert Murdoch, there's Sinclair, the owners of which have ZERO interest in providing you with something other than their conservative slant on the news.
H.L. Menken was correct. You will never go broke overestimating the stupidity of the American people.
The Republicans support dictatorship and absolutely despite intellectuals. They look more like the communists in the old Soviet Union and China during Mao's era.
18
Unfortunately, the socialist label is a self-inflicted wound to the party by Sanders and AOC. It would be great if they would stop calling themselves socialists and giving FOX News more fodder for the GOP fear-mongering cannon.
3
Socialism has changed its meaning several times since 1848. (Remember 'National Socialism?) Sometimes a thing changes in how we perceive it depending on what we call it. How do we perceive someone we call 'a man' or 'an immigrant' or 'a socialist' or 'a kid' or 'a grandmother' or 'a black' or 'a Muslim' or 'a KKK member' or 'a suspect'.
Consider the terms 'sharing' and 'rationing'. Is one who shares generous, and/or is she a socialist? Is someone who is rationing a person making the best of a situation, and/or is she a capitalist? Sharing can be an act of kindness by the lucky or a logical way of distributing community resources. Rationing can be fair use of limited resources, or economic rationing by wealth can be the basis of capitalism. Which is best for distribution of the nation's and the world's limited resources? It may depend on what word we use to describe it.
2
@Speakin4Myself I'll stick with the front matter of our Declaration of Independence -- "Life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" watered down a bit from the earlier " Life, Liberty and Property"
Like it or not, this is one of the first statements dating back to our original break from Britain.
Canada's constitution on the other hand has one oft quoted phrase -- “Peace, order and good government”
Different emphasis, different national DNA.
Kudos to Krugman for defining socialism briefly, simply, and accurately, and applying his definition to candidates' and their proposed policies to determine whether they are socialist. If he could do the same with capitalist, fascist and conservative (the last's meaning has evolved over time and place), he'd be doing us all a great service.
Neither Bernie Sanders nor Elizabeth Warren are socialists. But they (and, to lesser degrees, the other Democratic candidates) -are- European-style social Democrats. In American terms, their policies are descendants of Franklin Roosevelt's. Roosevelt was rich and capitalist, and didn't hide it. But he publicly warned that capitalism's excesses, especially those that caused the Great Depression, could actually destroy capitalism, and he wanted preserve it. Roosevelt implemented the New Deal not to create socialism, but to preserve capitalism.
And preserve capitalism he did, with Social Security, and other programs to ameliorate the cruelty of a system that used people up and threw them out. Keynes persuaded him that when the private sector stopped spending, government should spend more to keep the economy going, and he did - rural electrification, the WPA, and other programs.
Roosevelt was not the first nor the last to spend money for public benefit. Earlier, Abe Lincoln created land grant colleges, and Teddy Roosevelt founded the FDA. Later, LBJ created the War on Poverty. It's time for Sanders or Warren to continue this legacy.
17
@Aram Hollman
And, didn’t George Washington start a marine hospital because of diseases brought to USA ports by sailors? That idea, providing hospital care for mariners, laid the foundation for our public health system. Kind of reminds one of that line “promote the general Welfare.”
The greatest mistake Bernie is still doing is to not speak of Nordic Model and instead keep saying "socialism" which is a troubled term, to say the least, for the utter confusion the term brings.
Nordic Model aka Scandinavian Socialism is plain and simple. The means of production are private, labor is well organized and the State works with the two to ensure that justice is pervading all facets of social and economic life. The result? Nordic Model lifts all boats, gives all individuals a chance to educate and train for good professions, provides free health care and all other benefits that make a society whole.
Voila, Nordic Model is the term we progressive democrats must use, not socialism! Then let Hannity and Fox berate Scandinavians until they are blue in the face!
15
I had the good fortune to experience The Nordic Model when I developed a kidney stone during a trip to Russia with a group of other graduate students at Indiana University in 1990. Our professor had the good sense to get me out of Russia to be treated in Helsinki, Finland. I received excellent medical care. The hospital and treatment were free. The taxi ride from the hospital to my hotel cost $95. The things that are necessary for all people are free or affordable. Luxuries like long taxi rides are expensive. This works well in Finland, and it could work here in the U.S. as well.
12
Democrats believe they can righteously tremble through the valley in the shadow of death and arrive acceptably-scathed at the other side clutching the truth, and that is meaningful and anyone will admire them for it.
Meanwhile the rotten right wing narratives have multiplied into enough stuff to form a world view, never mind it is delusional, it is a world view driven by media machines given free reign to lie by Democrat’s complacency.
By not standing for truth, the Democrats allowed the falsity swamping our national discourse.
This goes back long before impeachment was taken “off the table”, but it was a defining moment.
Obama was rendered a place-holder president swept along amid the tide of lies that fenced in his presidency, swamped Hillary, and now work to close over his legacy.
A place holder by elision - to elide: to leave out of consideration - the lies and phony narratives.
Democrats, the party of elision, avoiding the topic of climate change in their debate just last night.
Standing for truth is not what the Democrats have done because saying the truth is not enough when the opposition is acting on lies.
Standing for truth in such a situation is action with talk, not just talk, it is doing, resisting, refusing, demanding, done with resolve to cause an effect.
Resolve, more than to simply win the presidency.
4
Not much to say but thanks for the intelligent article. I hope the Democrats can be as agile in their thinking and on their feet in any debate with Republicans as you are in this thoughtful piece.
5
Having lived in a truly Socialist country (Vietnam) it is very clear to me that what even Sanders wants is not Socialism. Thank you for clarifying that. There things like domestic electricity and gasoline were sold by state owned or partially state owned enterprises. They were also rather inexpensive.
7
I recommend every liberal read the book by Edmund Fawcett, "Liberalism, The Life of an Idea." Even so-called conservative icons were not conservatives. Fawcett writes, "Conservatives, on Hayek's account, suffered from the following weaknesses. They feared change unduly. They were unreasonably frightened of uncontrolled social forces. They lacked the feel for 'abstraction' needed for engaging with people of different outlooks. They were too cozy with elites and establishments. They gave in to jingoism and chauvinism. They tended to think mystically, much as socialists tended to over-rationalize. They were, last, too suspicious of democracy. For the rest, he was correct to mark himself a liberal. He distrusted power. He believed in progress."
3
"Leading Republicans, however, routinely describe Democrats, even those on the right of their party, as socialists."
Then it's overdue that we describe Republicans, even those on the left of their party, as fascists.
23
The really frightening thing is that lies might just win the day, and the election. People certainly seem sufficiently willing to believe them. Just last week a friend and I had to explain to two of his Trump-supporting family members that our state, California, is not actually broke and headed for hell; rather, that has a multibillion dollar reserve/rainy day fund set aside. They were polite but obviously skeptical. And they are people I've know and gained the trust of over many years.
One wonders what it will take for some of these people to wake up.
21
Let's by all means retain civility and not use the F for Fascism word. According to the Professor, it would be "slightly over the top".
After all:
Fascist demonize the 'other'.
Fascists swear allegiance to a leader rather than a system of government.
Fascists corrupt the electoral system to ensure they maintain power.
Fascists threaten their political rivals with persecutions.
Fascists stir up violence against their opponents.
Fascists pack the courts with their toady judges.
Fascist threaten to ignore the results of elections not in their favor.
Does that sound like the Republican Party to you?
Yes, let's all be civil.
We have a rapist President who subverts every norm of democracy with the enthusiastic backing of the Republican Party.
But let's be civil about it.
While the Republicans pack the courts, put children in concentration camps, gerrymand Democracy out of existence and demonize minorities it is important that Democrats remain polite and civil?
It is very nice the Democrats have such good manners and don't revert to the name-calling and rudeness of the Republicans.
The immigrant children the the USA's concentration camps are very civil and, from all reports, have very good manners. Perhaps the Democrats will continue to follow their example, and fate.
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@JMC
BRAVO~!!!
7
Trump is a fascist and he now controls the republican party which has embraced fascism as their m.o.. Trump admires the world's dictators and insults our longtime democratic allies. When someone shows you who they are, believe them.
44
Agree. But it should be aimed at Italian Fascism, not Hitler, which has too many hot buttons.
Call them Fascistas, explaining that Trumpists want Government and Corporations to run the country and the world.
2
A historically common error of liberals has been to avoid the use of the "F" word, because we are better than that, and the fascists will howl, as bullies always do when confronted. It is a terrible mistake, always, for fascists have always been determined. Determination and lack of scruples is their defining trait.
The Republican Party has morphed into a Christian Fascist movement. This needs to be repeated until this reality takes root in the public mind and becomes the self evident truth. There is no other way, as any other way is a weakness that will be exploited by the fanatics.
Fascism is a political method that seeks to control the society through deliberate incitement of emotion, primarily fear and fear's first derivative, hatred. Current trajectory of social transformation in the US leads to inevitable pauperization of large numbers of people, and their attention needs to be diverted, on the way there, by the festival of hate. Speak to them directly before it is too late, and we all wake up in Argentina/Brazil with nukes.
10
Why should I have a problem with a Democratic Party candidate calling the republicans fascists?
20
Jews, Roma, gays etc. constituted less than 1% of Germany's population at the start of WWII. People of color constitute about 35% of the US population now. As a POC, I find comfort in the likelihood that genocide, of the sort carried out by Hitler, is made less likely by these numbers.
I have little doubt that, but for such numbers, there are many on the right who see holocaust as a good idea. They have said so.
But regardless of the numbers or the identity of the victims, we must all act strongly against it. Never again.
12
I think, Mr. Krugman, you might glance over in my direction and murmur to yourself, "I'm looking at a moron."
The open mouth--the wide eyes--the air of comprehending NOTHING of what is going on all around me.
But (take my word for it) I'm not. Not really.
I'm just looking around me--reflecting that in around six weeks I'll be seventy years old--and asking myself, "What in the Lord's name is happening to my country?"
Remember way back when. Some government agency did a massive appraisal of American education. And concluded that, if our country had been taken over by some hostile power, the results would be the same.
But I'm not talking about education. I'm talking about politics.
I'm talking about the GOP--hence my little excursus at the beginning.
There used to be liberal REPUBLICANS. Remember? Senators Percy. And Hatfield. Remember Nelson Rockefeller?
Even the so-called moderates--thinking of Senators Dirksen and Javits--were (oh how to put this) halfway SANE. Halfway DECENT human beings. Halfway HONORABLE.
And now--
--Lord help us all, Mr. Krugman, I EXPECT them to lie. I EXPECT monstrous distortions or suppression of the truth. I EXPECT flimflam and chicanery.
The Democrats? Socialist? Oh gimme a break!
The Republicans? Fascist?
I'm wondering about it, Mr. Krugman. Seriously. I'm wondering about it.
Enemies of truth? Enemies of democracy in America?
Maybe.
God help me! Maybe.
3
@Susan Atwater - agreed. The true “Enemies of the People” are Trump and his GOP enablers.
Trump is under suspicion of having raped yet another woman. Where's the outrage? This bum should have been impeached two years ago for being unfit for office. Now we have proof he has obstructed justice and probably colluded with our chief adversary to help win his election, no matter what Don the Con says about himself. It's absurd that Trump gets away with corruption and lies as if he were president of the south florida real estate club, which is probably a good spot for him. Impeach this bum now and we can stop fretting about Democrats being called socialists and other names.
8
How about the D - word - Democracy? Socialism and Fascism both have power over the individual and killed millions of people (look at Russia, China and Nazi Germany). Either extreme is a threat to all of us. How do we protect our democracy and constitutional rights if foreign powers can interfere ad hack our elections?
2
The Democrats are now the party of open borders and free health care for illegals. These are losing campaign platforms.
1
Which candidates propose totally opening our borders? Which ones have been touting setting up health care for illegals? How have I missed these campaign promises?
4
@Louise Cavanaugh Based on tonight's debate - several hands went up. Rigorous border control first. Further incentives to come later.
@Louise Cavanaugh: abolishing ICE and maintaining DACA mean essentially OPEN BORDERS.
A path to citizenship for illegal alien criminals is OPEN BORDERS.
Refusing E-Verify (as in California) is OPEN BORDERS.
Not deporting all illegals is OPEN BORDERS.
Letting illegals make false asylum claims is OPEN BORDERS.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom just gave millions of illegals FREE HEALTH CARE -- while Americans live homeless on the streets of LA and SF, with NO health insurance.
Populism is a euphemism for right-wing fascism and nationalism and totalitarianism.
Socialism is a euphemism for humble humane empathy.
Jesus Christ of Nazareth was a left-wing community organizing socialist who promised eternal salvation to the poor, imprisoned, thirsty, naked, sick, homeless and despairing.
See Matthew 25: 31-46
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. warned against the danger of the confluence of unfettered and unhinged capitalism, militarism and racism that has made America 1st in money, arms and prisoners.
39
When I contemplate Trump, I can only think of the “A” word.
1
Fascism isn’t creeping in this country; it’s galloping.
We have every right to call the entire Republican Party Fascists; Terrorists; and Traitors.
They are out for their own gain at the expense of every single thing this country stood for, and in the process they are encouraging forces of oppression, pure evil and self-serving, murderous sycophancy, along with dictatorship and authoritarianism across the world.
The US Government remains illegitimate, and unrepresentative.
In other, more enlightened countries, such governments are removed by force, when necessary.
That may yet prove necessary here; nothing else is working.
16
When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.....and it will be broadcast on an endless Fox News reel, Hate Radio loop and Trump Twitter feed.
Better register, donate and vote in record numbers in 2020.
The Republican Party has no qualms with crushing American democracy for a few extra dollars.
Fight these right-wing fascists, nihilists and oligarchic madmen.
276
In the Netherlands the election season is 6 weeks; long enough. Here in the US of A we have this 16 month long horse race to sell newspapers.
1
@plonsIn Canada it lasts a little more than 30 days enough to put out platform and the fiances are controlled. No one seems to think when it costs $1 billion to be elected President there is not something wrong and gee you would not owe donors biggest legislative favors. Jim Trautman
Dem's must get strong, pithy, honest statements out there---repeatedly.
And the media needs to stop with the misleading headlines (yes, you too, NYT), and stop obsessing over Dem. gaffs that deserve only the briefest if any mention.
Focus on the content, not the mistakes!
3
The biggest problem with Dems and the “socialism” moniker is that they’re not smart enough to call Republicans what they really are - Fascists. Look it up- their behavior fits the definition perfectly.
5
"Whoever the Democrats nominate — even if it’s Joe Biden — Republicans will paint him or her as the second coming of Hugo Chávez. The only question is whether it will work."
Precisely! So can someone please explain to me why Biden is somehow more "electable" than the Democratic candidates who do not benefit from the largesse of any number of "Delaware corporations"?
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/delaware-corporation.asp
1